


GKND: Operation ALPHA

by KicaCris



Category: Codename: Kids Next Door, Galactic Kids Next Door - Fandom
Genre: Galactic Kids Next Door, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2019-11-21 20:32:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 59,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18147092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KicaCris/pseuds/KicaCris
Summary: A whole year has passed ever since Nigel Uno, aka Numbuh 1, was recruited by the GKND to become their very first Earth operative and Sector V is now part of the Supreme Global Command. Peaceful times come to an abrupt end when an old conflict of galactic proportions restarts once again and a secret team sector is forced to get involved in a war they've been desperately trying to avoid for thousands of years. This is the story of the beginning of a new era of KND.





	1. The era of KND Supreme Leader Numbuh 5

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer:   
> My sincere apologies for any grammatical mistake presented, English is not my first language.  
> Please Check out my Tumblr (KicaCris) for art and QA related to this story! 
> 
> Codename: Kids-Next-Door is a show created by Mr. Warburton and co-owned by Cartoon Network. Characters presented in this story are of their intellectual property.

** Now loading : **

** Galactic-Kids-Next-Door mission **

** Operation: **

** A.L.P.H.A. **

** A whole year has passed ever since Nigel Uno, aka Numbuh 1, was recruited by the GKND to become their very first Earth operative and Sector V is now part of the Supreme Global Command. Peaceful times come to an abrupt end when an old conflict of galactic proportions restarts once again and a secret team sector is forced to get involved in a war they've been desperately trying to avoid for thousands of years. This is the story of the beginning of a new era of KND. **

** Chapter 1: The era of KND Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 **

Space…the truly ultimate frontier, where the unknown absolutely rules over the millions of galaxies that populate the always-expanding universe. Darkness and light seem to intertwine in a sort of never-ending waltz, sometimes splashing the black veil with colorful nebulas and planets, and some other times destroying everything in its path with black holes and exploding supernovas.

You could say this waltz was more similar to a battle than to a dance, because of how much chaos and destruction it always cause…but then Big Bang-like events happen, and from their colossal clashes life always come out anew much like a Phoenix being reborn from its own ashes shinning so very brightly while proudly flying off again to perhaps start a new dancing tune.

The Milky Way, for example, our own home galaxy, was supposedly created from a powerful crash between two gigantic stars pretty similar to our Sun. That must have been a pretty scary event to witness but if it wasn't because of that catastrophic event, our home planet Earth would have never come to exist, right?

It's certainly a chain reaction that continues to repeat itself.

Something similar was what eventually lead to the creation of the renamed Kids-Next-Door thousand of years ago. Every era of KND began with a sudden spark, a clash of two forces that wanted something for themselves. There's probably not a single era that hadn't started with a conflict of global proportions.

But oddly enough, whenever a new era was about to begin, a period of peace would predict it, the calm before the storm as some people like to refer to it, and these specific rare seasons tend to be extremely dangerous for there's nothing more weakening than the constant sensation that nothing could ever go wrong. Humans especially tend to become too comfortable, too confident when their lives seem to slow down, so they rarely are prepared for when these sudden changes in their destinies occur. You must be very perceptive to sense ahead of time when these changes are about to happen.

And it was at the end of a very hot summer when unknown to the people of Earth, the 7th era of the Kids-Next-Door was about to end.

Space looked different that morning from the towering view of the new Kids-Next-Door Moonbase Zero. The skies looked darker than usual but Earth seemed to glow more brightly blue and green than ever and stars twinkled around the nearby planets in a secret synchronized tune. The colossal silhouette of Numbuh Zero's monument was washed under the morning sunlight as the dawn of a new day began normally.

"Now cadets here we're entering what's known as the main bridge of our magnificent new KND Moonbase, the heart of our entire organization and where our amazingly cool Global Command supervises all KND operations around the globe!" Numbuh 60 said proudly as he walked in front of a large group of cadets on their very first time visiting the legendary KND main headquarters.

"The Moonbase was build at the beginning of the 2nd era of KND by the few survivors of the first big 'Time Out war" with the adults. It first served as a home to all the heroes who fought valiantly for children's freedom but later became the beacon of kids unbeatable resistance and strength-" his voice suddenly pitched for an instance and had to quickly cough to make it sound normal again, "sorry about that" he blushed and continued his tour while approaching a separated area near the large windows so to not disturb the many operatives that were currently working at the moment.

"Poor lad already dealing with the early signs of puberty," said with a deep Australian accent a figure watching the group from the upper platform of the main Global Command booth. His hairstyle had changed from a clean bowl cut to a much shaggier look and was slightly more suntanned due to the many missions he had lived. The blond boy was sporting an open orange hooded jacket over a white shirt with a pair of baggy denim bermudas and black combat boots. "The squeaky voice is the worst symptom " Numbuh 4 scoffed from his spot as he looked down with melancholy at Patton Drilovsky, aka Numbuh 60.

"Yeah…although he seems to be taking it well, still doing his job like a Swiss watch," another figure said next to his command desk. It was a much chubby boy, of light complex and reddish brunet hair. He was wearing a sky blue buttoned-up shirt, ripped khaki pants, brown sandals, a brown aviator cap over his head and thick square-shaped glasses. "I don't know why he insists on working and training cadets rather than spend his last week as a KND operative in a beach or something. So many years living in that Artic Base must be maddening".

"Well, it's not like he has anything better to do, mate, and who said our jobs aren't fun anyway?" Numbuh 4 replied.

"Ah come on you're telling me you'll rather spend your last days chasing after 13-year-old fugitives all over the place than, I don't know, eating all the candy you can find? Throwing water balloons at teens proms? Having fun with your friends-"

"Hoagie my friend, you clearly underestimate the fun of terrorizing teen fugitives! Right Numbuh, 86?" Numbuh 4 smirked with pride while glancing at a freckled red-haired girl that was standing next to him with a holographic tablet on her hands.

She glared back at him briefly but then smirked too, " it's certainly way much fun than developing new 2x4 weaponry for sure" she agreed on her usual Scottish accent to everyone' surprise and Numbuh 4 ended up high fiving her for once.

"Sheesh! You guys are twisted! Definitely made for the Decommission Squad!" Hoagie rolled his eyes while shaking his head, "I´ve already planned what I´ll be doing the last 4 weeks before my decommission!" he said proudly, " Oh yes sir, when my time comes, I'll spend my final days in KND flying every single one of our coolest aircrafts throughout the skies! I´ll break every speed limit and set so many new records probably not even my grandchildren will be able to break them in the future!" He chuckled at the mental image "I'll also re-watch all the seasons of Doctor Time Space and the Continuums one last time, donate my entire Yipper Cards collection to the KND Nerd Society, give all my rarest inventions and dismissed project blueprints to the Kids Next Door Seriously Cool Museum of Artifacts and Stuff and… probably eat all the chili-dogs I can before I get that acne virus we invented" he chuckled with fun.

"Well" Numbuh 4 mused for a second, "I suppose I would love to have one final showdown with Uncle Toiletnator to set the final score straight once and for all, before I forget all my KND days" he shrugged, "Oi! Kuki!" he turned around and shouted behind Numbuh 86's, "what do ya think?"

Right next to the Head of the Decommissioning Squad was a tall Japanese girl, with shoulder length straight black hair, wearing an over-sized green shirt, black leggings, and black flat shoes, sitting on a desk with a pair of rainbow monkeys at each side of her keyboard. The always cheerfully Numbuh 3 might have gained a few pounds over the last year but to him, she looked even prettier than ever. "what about what, Wally?" she obviously hadn't been listening to them as she set down a rainbow monkey with a stethoscope around its neck on top of her table.

Numbuh 4 facepalmed, "have you thought about what would you like to do on your final days as a KND operative?" he questioned her exasperated.

"Oh no silly, that's still pretty far away!" she giggled and waved one of her long oversized sleeves in a dismissive manner.

"Kuki…you realize we're all turning 13 in like" he counted with his fingers"…a year and a half, right?" he turned towards Numbuh 2 for confirmation and he nodded in response.

"Exactly! It's really, really, REALLY, very far away Wally! If you start planning things for when that day comes you might end up jinxing it and my mom always tells me to not count your chickens before they hatch!" she imitated her mom's in her usual strict stance.

Wally Beetles rolled his eyes at her, "and what about you, Numbuh 86?" he suddenly asked for everybody' shock, "surely the head of decommissioning has already everything planned ahead of time, including my shiny and inevitable promotion?" he sang along the last part while wiggling his eyebrows at her playfully.

"In your dreams, short stack". Fanny Fulbright, the fiery 12 years old Head of Decommissioning and Global Tactical Officer, slapped Numbuh 4's head back with her tablet, "Just because the Supreme Leader promoted you to Decommissioning Lieutenant, doesn't mean I'M handing over to you the reigns of my team! I´m actually recommending Numbuh 91 for my position" she admitted with a large smirk to his astonished face.

"OH, YOU´RE ONLY SAYING THAT TO PISS ME OFF, DON´T CHA?!"

"No, I'm not, Beetles! Numbuh 91 is not only more capable than you or any other boy in the matter, but is actually much younger and would be able to keep the good work for at least 3 more years"

"YOU´RE ONLY CHOOSING HER BECAUSE YOU HATE BOYS!"

"NO IM NOT YOU IDIOT!"

Numbuh 2 and 3 giggled at the usual banter exchange they nowadays had to deal with ever since they were all promoted as the new Global Command team.

"Abby probably has the coolest pre-decommissioning plan ever, right boss?" Hoagie looked above to the top of the tallest platform that rose behind the 4 of them.

There, on top of an upside-down airplane tale was the most important operative of the entire organization. She was dark skinned and slender with her hair neatly combed on a long dark braid, sporting a white striped dark blue sleeved turtle neck shirt, with a pair of white shorts and red cowboy boots with the number 5 labeled at each side of them, and a matching red Gatsby cap that now she had to wear under a very heavy samurai-like helmet with the number "5" engraved in a copper plate.

Numbuh five sighed deeply, her eyes rising towards the curve of the Earth that was right behind Numbuh 60 and his group of young cadets.

"It´s been a year already?" her thoughts drifted away, "Time sure flies when you're Supreme Leader..." she absently adjusted her helmet, "this is the toughest job there is and still…"

"I can't stop thinking about that day…"

(1 year ago)

" _You are resigning?" A recently turned 11-year-old Numbuh 5's whispered with her eyes big as plates as she looked down at the KND Supreme Leader's helmet that was now in her hands._

_ Numbuh 86 and the rest of the Global Command were loudly crying behind her. _

" _I know it sounds repetitive coming from me but…this time is for real I'm afraid" Abby heard and her eyes went up to meet with Numbuh 362's warm smile. When had the Supreme Leader grown so tall? She wondered._

" _Rachel whyyyyy?! You still have time!" Numbuh 86 protested with tears and buggers running down her freckled face._

_ Rachel T. Mackenzie was a few weeks away from turning 13 years old and yet you could already notice that something in her had changed. It wasn't only her physical appearance, as she had grown taller and leaner, but something in her eyes and in her tired smile seemed wiser and more mature. It was the exact same expression Maurice Willems had the days before his decommission. _

" _Rachel-" Numbuh 5 began but Rachel cut her with a slight raise of her hand._

" _It´s alright everyone, I checked all the KND regulations and it's allowed for the Supreme Leader to choose a trustworthy fellow operative to succeed him/ her instead of summoning a game of tag. Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 chose Numbuh 274 and me as his successors years before his decommission so I'm not exactly doing anything "new" here" she smiled._

" _But Sir! Your 13th birthday is still a month away! What are you going to-?"_

" _Oh for the love of Numbuh Zero guys, this is actually good news! I´m doing this right now since things seem to have quiet down a bit after the last Cake mission with the Delightful Children from Down the Lane! We don´t know when will we ever have another moment of peace like this one!" She insisted in her usual stern commanding tone._

" _But Rachel!" Abby geared up in determination again, "I can't leave Sector V right now! I just can't! Not after…not after Numbuh 1 sudden departure…" her hand went to the pocket of her shirt that contained Nigel's sunglasses, her fingers grasping them tightly. "I promised him I would lead the team in his place!"_

_ Rachel eyes softened at her confession, "I understand Abby and that´s why I´m promoting your whole sector to be the new Global Command's team-" _

" _WHAT?!" Numbuh 86 stopped crying and gapped at her in shock._

" _It would be perfect! You guys along with Numbuh 86 and Numbuh 60 will keep KND working without a problem, I´m confident of it" everyone was looking at her like she had certainly gone mad._

" _But sir!"_

" _It's alright! There's none else more qualified for this job than you, Numbuh 5. I trust you, we all do…don't worry about me…I actually need to solve a lot of pending paperwork before my 13 birthday anyway, and I will make sure you're adequately briefed in everything you need to know about the position…" the blonde pre-teen tried to reassure her._

" _Rachel please-"_

" _Abby listen to me…" Rachel suddenly grabbed her by her shoulders and looked at her straight in the eye. Numbuh 5 gulped slowly and did as ordered. "from this day on I'm going to have to ask you to trust me no matter what…" Abby arched an eyebrow confusedly, "Trust me on this, alright?" she then let go of her and began to turn around to leave the room_

" _don't worry about me…because as a legendary KND operative once said…once a kids-next-door operative, you'll always be a kid next door operative". Her voice echoed and faded away in her memories._

(End of the flashback)

A few months later after that, the ex-KND Supreme Leader Numbuh 362, Rachel T. Mckenzie, was honorably decommissioned on her 13th birthday without a fight nor complain. It felt just as close and personal as the day Numbuh 9 too was decommissioned and Sector V mourned the day for weeks.

Numbuh 5' ascended to Supreme Leader of Global Kids-Next-Door without objection, and Sector V was effectively promoted as her new Global Command team. Their old base at the Uno's residency got later re-assigned to Sector W and the veteran team was fully relocated on the KND Moonbase Treehouse.

It took some time to get used to their new lives at the Moonbase treehouse, but compared to how it felt to the day Nigel left this new change had been overcome much faster. Each one of them accepted and adapted to their new individual global position roles really fast: Numbuh 4 was now the Decommissioning Lieutenant of the Decommission Squad and had embraced his new job joyfully. The rate of traitors had decreased to 0% ever since, much to Numbuh 86's surprise. The red-haired girl had loudly voiced her concerns to Numbuh 5 from Wally's very first day but he seemed to have proven her wrong and nowadays you could actually see them both agree whenever they had to come up with preventing tactical maneuvers and less traumatic capture methods.

Numbuh 3 was now the Global Supervisor of the KND Hospital and the Global Medical Staff, and although Abby had had her own concerns about assigning Kuki to such a delicate position, the girl had proven to be very focused and dedicated to her job, making sure that all medical candy supplies were always stocked and that every medical operative knew how to stitch a torn stuffed toy. She also made sure the Moonbase Hamsters were also properly fed and taken care, improving greatly the hamster's force's work conditions. But what surprised Abby the most was when Kuki started campaigning to change the use of hamsters as an energy source for a much cleaner option like solar energy. "We have the sun right there! Why can't we just use it instead of making our hamsters work extra hours? My dad says the sun is the most powerful source of energy there is!" she had snapped at the dumbfounded faces of the scientists of the KND Deep Sea Science lab.

Speaking of scientists, Numbuh 2 was another of the team who eagerly took his new role as Global Chief of 2x4 Engineer very seriously. He would constantly travel back and forth from the Moonbase to the Deep Sea Science Lab to personally supervise and even work on every new 2x4-developing project there was. He would even go as far as to actually visit every single one of the KND Orbital Shipyards to give conferences about his current new conceptual projects to the many rookie tech officers that were training and studying there. Hoagie would always return to the Moonbase very late at nights, babbling non-stop about all the new tech findings he had accomplished, much to everyone's joy. With Nigel gone, he was now the new official workaholic member of Sector V.

And Numbuh 5? Well, let's just say that now she understood perfectly well why Rachel had tried to quit her job as Supreme Leader the first time. You definitely need to be some kind of special operative to have the guts and patience to actually manage such a gigantic organization as KND. She missed the old days terribly.

"Hello! Moonbase to Abby! Hello!"

Abby came back from her trance and looked down at Numbuh 2 with an arched eyebrow, "oh sorry Hoagie, Numbuh 5 was again remembering stuff" she smiled and quickly jumped down from her command booth to join her team.

"You've been doing that a lot lately," Numbuh 2's said with worry, "better watch out or you'll end having one of those crazy break downs that Numbuh 362 used to have while being the Supreme Leader" he tried to humor her with his usual jokes.

"Ya know Numbuh 5 is always cool and therefore can't have mental breakdowns, baby," she said with a hand on her hip and her teeth shining brightly. "And to answer your previous question, yes I do have the coolest retirement plan that any Supreme Leader has ever come up with in all Kids-Next-Door history…I´ll put Numbuh 100's party to shame, you´ll see…"

She made a dramatic pause as Numbuh 2, 3, 4 and 86 expectantly waited for her to finish her sentence.

"But I guess telling ya would be too much of a spoiler as Numbuh 3 just said, and you all know Numbuh 5 has a strict no-spoiler policy!" she chuckled at everybody´s moans of disappointment.

"I'm calling ya no-fun-Supreme-Leader from now on," Numbuh 4 said mockingly.

Numbuh 5 then looked ahead and noticed Numbuh 60 now approaching their station with his group of cadets-next-door. "Shhh, straighten up Wally!" she heard Kuki whisper hurriedly and Numbuh 4 who quickly recomposed himself to look taller.

Abby looked at Numbuh 60 and couldn't help herself notice how the almost-13-year-old chief of the KND Artic Training Base was now towering them in height. His black hair had grown longer, his facial features hardened, his chin has gotten angular, and his usual artic attire seemed now uncomfortably too tight fit for him. She fondly remembered the day of Rachel's decommission and how hard the veteran operative had taken it. He had later lashed out all his sadness on the training simulator to prevent scaring his young pupils. Numbuh 5 was really shocked when Numbuh 2 informed her angrily of all the equipment that needed to be entirely replaced in the almost destroyed simulator.

She was definitely going to miss the tough guy and silently hoped for her sister to not be interested in recruiting him for the Teen Ninjas.

"Supreme Leader Numbuh 5, fellow Global Command Sector V, sirs!" Patton Drilovsky, aka Numbuh 60, gave them a military greeting. The young cadets behind him followed suit and also saluted them.

"Hehehe at ease soldiers, Numbuh 5 welcomes you all to the Moonbase" Abby approached them with her hands crossed behind her back and a big smile on her features. "I thought I signed your full-covered vacation leave last week, Patton. You should be relaxing on Sector J's beach instead of doing scholar tours in the Moonbase" Abby whispered to him with a sad smile.

Numbuh 60 relaxed his military stance and chuckled at his Supreme Leader, "Nah, that's too relaxing for me, Abby. I rather keep doing my job than getting sunburnt or drown in mango smoothies with Sector J" he shrugged with an eyebrow playfully arched.

She shook her head, "Good old Numbuh 60. Well then Numbuh 5 will leave you be as you wish" she cleared her throat and refocused her attention to the large group of cadets that were quietly expecting her to once again address them. "Well I bet ya'll have a bunch of questions about our headquarters and lucky for ya, Numbuh 5 has a bit of free time to answer a few-"

" _How big is the new Moonbase, Supreme Leader?"_

" _How many kids live in the Moonbase?!"_

" _Is it true that Father is Numbuh Zero's brother?!"_

" _What happens if Grandfather returns once again?"_

" _Is it true you have tasted the 4th flavor?!"_

" _Did broccoli turned ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 362? crazy?!"_

" _Is it true that Nurse Claiborne uses snot for her famous apple crumble pie?!"_

" _Is it true that commander Numbuh 4 has a crush on commander Numbuh 3?"_

" **HEY!-"**

" _Are the rumors about the Rainbow Monkey Island true?"_

" _Supreme leader Numbuh 5!"_

" _Supreme leader please-!"_

"Alright, alright! Calm down kids, one at a time!" Abby didn't expect so many questions fired at once.

"Sorry Numbuh 5, they're working on a KND Historical report so that's why they're firing up as many questions as they can…so very sorry" he whispered into her ear as kids quiet down around them.

"Historical report uh? Well ok listen up, you're like 200 kids so I can't actually answer all your questions so…uhm…" she desperately thought, "Numbuh 5 is going to choose one of you at random and answer that lucky cadet his or her question, alright? You can later go to Numbuh 2 and ask him for a copy of his WikiKNDpedia-"

"Abby, that's still not completed-" Hoagie tried to protest but Numbuh 5 ignored him.

The cadets-next-door cheered in victory and anxiously waited for their Supreme Leader to choose.

"Let's see…" Abby looked around her, so many still-very-young future KND operatives looking back at her with their eyes shining with expectation and curiosity. They reminded her so much of the first time she met Numbuh 1 and invited him to join the KND. He was so different back then, with full hair and a much joyful spirit. Unintentionally, her eyes looked for someone remotely close to what he looked like that day.

She then noticed a small dark-skinned girl, with her curly hair tied up in two pigtails wearing a white and red stripped overall over a white shirt and matching white shoes. She was the only one not really paying attention at Numbuh 5, as she seemed more interested in a book she was currently reading.

"Yo! You over there with the stripped white and red overall!" Numbuh 5 shouted and all the cadets turned around to gasp in surprise at who she was referring to.

The girl had to be snap out of her book by another fellow cadet. "Trix! The Supreme Leader is talking to you!" a brunette girl whispered sharply to her and the girl rose her eyes in surprise.

"Me?!" the little girl panic while the other giggled around her in mockery.

"Uhm Supreme Leader-" Numbuh 60 now sounded unsure, "about that girl-"

"Yes, you! Come over to the front and ask Numbuh 5 anything you want to know about!" Abby ignored how Patton readjusted his sweater's collar.

The little girl walked hurriedly to the front as the rest of the cadets whispered around her. She stopped a few inches away from Numbuh 5 and shyly made a military greeting.

"What's your name, cadet?"

"I-I'm Trixy Jhonson, Supreme Leader, sir- I mean ma'am!" the little girl stammered nervously.

Numbuh 5 smiled largely at her, "Nice to meet ya, Trixie. Your commander Numbuh 60 has informed me that all of you are doing a very important KND Historical report that must be completed very soon, correct?" she asked her.

"Yes ma'am, that is correct" she averted her eyes in what Numbuh 5 read as shame.

"Well, it's your lucky day girl! Ask me anything you would like to know about the subject you chose!" She tried to encourage her but Trixie just looked even more flustered than before.

"Oh, I don't know ma'am…nobody thinks my subject is even worth to be considered a 'historical subject' of study" she kicked the floor disappointedly.

"Supreme Leader may I have a word-?" Patton once again tried to cut in.

"Nonsense! All KND historical events are super worth of study! Now what don't you tell good-old-Numbuh 5 what is it about?" she was starting to get annoyed by the cadets who were still snickering in mockery at the little girl.

Trixy sighed and rubbed her shoulder, "if Supreme Leader insists…" she grabbed the old book that she had been reading before being called and turned a few pages over until she finally stopped right in the middle. "I…I chose as my KND Historical report subject…this…" she turned the book over and showed it to Numbuh 5.

Sector V peaked from behind Abby and curiously looked at what seemed to be an old picture of a wooden carved pictographic that had five figures seemingly fighting against a sixth strange looking foe at the top of a giant tree. Numbuh 5's eyes went wide as she distinguished the symbol on the chest of one of the figures.

"Oh…you're doing a report about the legendary  ** _Sector Alpha_**?" the little girl nodded timidly at her and Sector V collectively raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Patton once again came closer to whisper in her ear, "I'm really sorry about this Abby but the kid seems to have some obsession over fairytales in general…I've tried multiple times on making her change her research subject but she's stubborn…" Abby glanced at Numbuh 60 with a frown and then noticed how the mocking whispers were now getting louder behind the girl.

"Well now that's one juicy subject you have here my girl" Abby straightened herself up and squared her shoulders as much as possible to look more imposing to the rest of the cadets. "What would you like to ask Numbuh 5 about Sector Alpha?" the young cadets gasped in surprise.

"You mean it?" Trixy wondered with sparks in her eyes.

"Of course girl, fire away!"

Numbuh 60 looked back and forward between the confident Supreme Leader and his very naïve cadet.

"Ok…well…uhm…" the girl took a minute to come up with the right question as she sensed she only had a shot in this, "does…does Sector Alpha  _really_  exist?" she mentally slapped her mind as that wasn't exactly a factual question but she imagined that having the Supreme Leader's opinion properly quoted for her project could at least give her not such a bad grade with commander Numbuh 60.

But what she didn't expect was the answer the Supreme Leader was about to give her, "well of course they exist, for Numbuh Zero' sake!" Numbuh 5 rolled her eyes largely and crossed her arms outraged, "After all Numbuh 5 actually saw them with her very own two eyes 5 years ago!" she exclaimed and this time even the moon base operatives who were casually lurking around the bridge turned around to look at her with gaping mouths.

"What is she talking about now?" Hoagie whispered to Wally confusedly.

"YOU DID?!" Trixy just couldn't believe the Supreme Leader's words.

"You know Numbuh 5 is no liar so yeah girl, 100% true. It was during Numbuh 11 last mission as Sector V's leader…" Abby began to tell fondly, "a mission at the Delightful Children from Down the Lane mansion had gone…terribly wrong…" the image of an unconscious Numbuh 1 with his hair falling off his head flashed in her mind, making her heart ache with nostalgic pain, "we were hurt and surrounded, with no weapons nor good escape plans…my sis-I mean- Numbuh 11 was doing her best to keep the spirits up but it was really a desperate situation…"

"Everyone was crying and shouting and we had really ran out of plans, so I did what probably was our only option: call for support…" she admitted with one hand in her hip and the other curled in a fist, "you should never feel ashamed of calling for support by the way, take notes on that…" she ordered and funny enough everybody did as she told.

"Anyway, so I called for support and the only person who managed to catch our signal was our ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 100!" she pretty much had the attention of the whole moonbase staff right now, "he answered back and told us he was sending the team that was nearest to our location and to hold on our positions…" she made a dramatic pause as all cadets hold their breaths in anticipation.

"I was so sure we were not gonna make it…but then…" Numbuh 5 opened her arms over her head excitedly and continued "we heard them! The thunderous sound of a ship! And not ANY ship, ya know?" she winked at Trixy.

"You mean-?! THE SHIP?!" she jumped excitedly.

"The most glorious KND aircraft there is: THE ALPHA FALCON! We only saw its silhouette against the moon of course but we all KNEW it was THAT SHIP! And you know who came out of it?" Abby then kneeled down tp Trixy's eye level.

"no way…don't lie to me! You can't lie if you're the Supreme Leader!"

She crossed her heart at her, "never Trixy I swear. My memory is a bit blurry after 5 years but I recall they moved so fast that by the time we had realize who they were, they had already managed to beat every teen ninja loser in a mere blink of an eye…oh man and the just to see them tore down a giant robot as it was made out of butter was epic enough to have it forever engraved in my brain hahaha!" she snickered with an arm warped around the excited young cadet who just couldn't believe the story.

"What about…the leader…? Did you see…did you actually see  ** _Numbuh Alpha_**?" she whispered timidly to which Abby just smirked.

The legendary  _Numbuh Alpha_ , leader of  _Sector Alpha_ , a mysterious operative who was believed to be the very best operative of the entire organization, even greater than Numbuh Zero himself.

"All clad in his shinning pure white armor, white samurai helmet and silver mask, yes…right at the top of the remains of the robot actually…Alpha and the others disappeared just as fast as they arrived and none of us could believe the luck we had, not only because we were all sound and safe after one of the most frightening missions of our lives, but because we had been lucky enough to witness the greatness of the most top-ranked Sector of all KND!" she boisterous declared with a hand raised to the starry space in front of them making all the young cadets clap and shout with excitement and with a new founded hope.

A few tears appeared in the corner of Trixy's eyes, "I-I can't believe it…everyone always made fun of me for believing Sector Alpha existed…I'm so happy" she sniffed, a bugger already running down her nose, "thank you madam Supreme Leader!"

Abby winked at her reassuringly, "don't mention it girl, and never ever doubt in your own beliefs, ok? You can ask Numbuh 101 for more of Sector Alpha's sightings if you need more proves, knowing the fanboy he is I'm pretty sure he must have a huge collection about them" she patted her back good heartily.

"Yes Supreme Leader! Thank you! Thank you!" she ran back to meet again with the rest of the cadets-next-door who in no time started to treat her with more respect than before.

Abby rose up again to her feet and gave a reproaching side-glance at Numbuh 60, "fairy tales uh?" she said with her arms crossed and Patton Drilovsky scratched the back of his head apologetically.

"I appreciate what you did Abby but…I don't think we should keep using made up stories to inspire-"

"Are you implying my story is made up, Patton?" She frowned at him.

"No-no ma'am, of course not but-"

"Then don't undermine the kid's believes and grade her research accordingly…as far as I recall  _Sector Alpha_  being mentioned in the Book of KND is enough proof of its existence veracity, right?" Abby patted his shoulder as she walked back to her team.

"Ye-yes Supreme Leader of course…my apologies" he bowed respectfully and made a mental note to keep his skepticism in check in the future.

Meanwhile back on Earth, morning had come and a new year was just starting at McClintock High School. The school walls had been all decorated with colorful posters and fliers with welcoming messages for all freshmen students. The hallways were particularly crowded, with members of the cheerleader squad giving out fliers and inviting all new students to enroll in the upcoming try-outs, while also friendly-reminding them to vote for the re-election of their fabulous captain as the Prom Queen.

Said captain and current ruling prom queen was not only known for her unquestionable beauty and sharp mind, but also for her machiavellian power as the second in command of the infamous Teen Ninja forces. Branded as a traitor by the KND, Cree Lincoln had managed to grow in strength over the years, with many new recruits joining her cause against the infamous only-kids-organization of the planet every year. Sometimes kids-next-door deserters will come willingly to her and declare their new loyalty before even turning 13 years old. She would always welcome these lost poor souls to their ranks, dotting them with proper pre-teenhood schooling to make sure they get well informed on not only where their places are in her very well-organized and stratified kingdom, as she liked to refer to it, but to also make sure their loyalties were completely aligned with her ultimate goal: the complete elimination of the Kids-Next-Door.

But some other times, in very rare occasions, she would actually set her eyes on certain specific decommissioned KND operatives, those who had nobly but naively accepted their fates with their childhood memories completely erased from their minds. She would especially hunt for those who she knew had a different kind of potential or even better, had been extra loyal to the Kids-Next-Door. Cree would always consider these specific recruitments as her most precious small victories in her cause, for there is nothing more ironically hilarious and hurtful than to see as an ex-hero become the villain for those he or she sworn to protect.

And today was one of those rare hunting days for her, as she leaned against the cold metal of the lockers fully dressed in her cheerleader uniform.

"I have to admit, I had my doubts when I heard about your enrolment in our school last year. Freshmen are always such easy prey for social pressure, you don't know how many times I have had to rescue poor kids from having mental break downs in the middle of hallways after merely surviving their first week and you were such an early bloomer. But my oh my, you actually defended yourself pretty well, girl" she snickered with a knowing smile.

"I mean, you have to be some special kind of girl if you manage to become the volleyball team's captain right by the end of your first freshman year!" she crossed her arms and looked smugly at the figure next to her, who seemed more focused on getting the right books for the next class.

"I guess my lil' sister was right about you all this time, she said you had some serious leadership skills. Can't wait to see you officially lead the team on your first game tomorrow night!" she squealed excitedly as the other girl finally turned to look at her.

It was a girl of few inches shorter than her, of golden blond straight shoulder length hair, wearing a long sleeve knitted orange dress with a brown leather belt wrapped around her small waist, dark blue denim jeans and matching brown leather cowboy boots. As she turned towards Cree, the girl moved a few strands of her fringe and looked at her with curious hazelnut eyes.

"Thank you…Cree was it, right? I guess it was just some sort of 'new-comers luck' or something" Rachel T. Mackenzie shrugged at her nonchalantly. "The way you speak about your sister makes me feel I should know her but for some reason, I just can't picture her face" she closed her locker and adjusted her heavy messenger back on her shoulder.

"Of course you can't remember her, dear ex-Supreme Leader," she thought to herself as Cree's lopsided smile almost reached her ears. "Oh well I mean, you were probably very popular among her group of friends, I don't necessarily mean it as you knew each other" she snickered lowly. "But anyway, what was I going with my chit-chat is that I think you might be more ready than I expected it for the major leagues of high school, my dear Rachel," she said while warping an arm around the blond girl.

Rachel arched an eyebrow in confusion, "what does that mean?"

"Well you see, I'm not only your fabulous cheerleader captain and beautiful ruling Prom Queen, but I also happen to be the leader of a very important group of-"

"Cree! Man, there you are! Stacy has gone crazy looking all over the school for ya and oh-"

Cree and Rachel turned around to see the source of a masculine voice and found a tall dark skinned boy, with black haired dreadlocks reaching down until his chin, wearing an oversized green jacket over a pastel blue shirt, baggy navy jeans, and brown boots. His facial features were soft and handsome but there was still a very juvenile glim in his brown eyes.

"Maurice, sweet love of my life, you know you can't just shout my name in the middle of the school's hallway like that! People would make the wrong assumptions and since Steve and I became prom king and queen last year, well, I'm sorry but people can't really see us being 'together' like before, ya know?" she scolded him although she didn't sound mad at him at all.

Maurice arched an eyebrow at her in complete confusion, "…right…I forgot…my bad?" he apologized, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Oh sweetie you know I could never get angry at ya! Oh, by the way, have you already met my new volleyball captain Rachel T. Mackenzie? She started studying with us last year and look at her, already a sports captain at such a young age!" her arm painfully squeezed Rachel' shoulder.

Maurice locked eyes with Rachel, both blinking silently for a few seconds before the taller guy reached out one of his hands to her. "No I don't believe we have been formally introduced: I'm Maurice Williems, Basketball team captain" he smiled sweetly at her.

Cree's iron grasp around her shoulder loosened and Rachel too raised a hand to shake it with the boy, "Oh another fellow sports captain! Nice to meet you, I'm Rachel as Cree just said. Still getting used to being freshman" she smiled back at him with a bit of uncertainty.

"Oh I think you have it already figured it out if you managed to become a sports captain so fast, so don't try to act humble with us" he joked and he earned a good laugh from the girl.

"Look at you both! I can sense a great captain duo chemistry already developing, yes, yes, yes!" Cree once again wrapped her arm around Rachel' shoulder and pulled Maurice also into an iron semigroup hug. "Just don't ever think on falling in love with him, ok Rachel, or else I would have to kill you" she quickly whispered darkly.

Her sudden treat made them both sweat uncomfortable.

"What-Cree-!"

"Listen, baby, I know we're not dating anymore because of Steve and you know, prom rules and stuff, but Steve will eventually go to college and trust me on this, you will be the next in line." She softly patted his cheek good naturally.

"But you and Steve are the same age, wouldn't you also be going to college by then?" he questioned.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cree's loud hysterical laugh startled everyone in the hallway, "oh Maurice you're so funny some times…I would never stop being prom queen dear, Steve might lose the crown one day but me? I'm never, ever, letting anyone take mine!" she said sinisterly to both teenagers dumbfounded faces.

Her phone suddenly vibrated, surprising the three teens at the same time and she swiftly took it out of her skirt to read at the recently received message. "Speaking of the devil, Steve wants to see me…argh! I better go and see what he's up to now" she rapidly tapped her answer and put her phone back into her pocket.

"I'll see you tomorrow night at your big game, captain Mackenzie" she grabbed her purse and made military greet to Rachel. "Keep being a good boy, Maurice" she winked at him and turned around slowly, swinging her hips wide in a very obvious seducing manner.

The school's hallway promptly returned to its usual noisy state as many other students resumed their doings, walking pass Maurice and Rachel without really noticing them.

"You know, I don't really need to turn around to see your mocking smile, Rachel" Maurice brows lowered as his expression changed to a much-annoyed one. He glanced over his shoulder and found Rachel covering her mouth in a futile way to hide her mirth.

"I don't know what his future highness is talking about" she opened her locker once again and searched among her belongings. "Man you really deserve a medal for putting up with THAT for so long" she chuckled as she pulled out a light blue iPhone from deep within.

"I know, right! Argh! Man you don't know how lucky you're for having avoided a bullet like that, you know?" he crossed his arms and leaned against the locker next to hers.

"Well, I guess I could have been assigned to date The Steve…ew! Can you imagine that?" she trembled disgusted as she kept reading through her phone.

She side glanced at him upon noticing he had grown suddenly quiet. "What?" she asked him a bit confused at his sweet dreamy smile.

"Nothing… I just can't believe you are here now" he said with a full white toothy grin, earning a crimson blush out of her.

"Me neither to be honest…I still feel I should have said something that day thought" she whispered.

Maurice shrugged dismissively, "Yeah I remember I felt the same too…something around 'hey guys, I think the decommissioning machine is broken' or something but then…"

"But then we wouldn't be here, right?" Rachel finished for him with a small understanding smile.

"Hey at least we didn't have to do a huge show and almost blow the Moon Base to the sun" he joked with a large roll of his eyes earning a knowing snort from Rachel.

"Thank god for that!" she exclaimed and the frowned at her iPhone with worry.

"I got nothing too…let's try to reach out again after school, ok? You know how he is so don't worry" Maurice squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

Rachel sighed and put her iPhone inside one of her dress' pockets. "I just hope the lack of messages doesn't mean bad news".

"Nah, he's fine. Now let's go grab a pizza at the cafeteria to shoo your worries away!" he joked and once again gained another laugh from her.

"You really haven't changed one bit, Mo," she said with fun as she grabbed him by the arm and walked alongside each other through the hallway.

(Meanwhile, …deep in space. )

"I really want to help you old friend, but you must stop fighting the inevitable…" a red hooded figure was in front of neon green laser bars. He was in a very dark jail cell, the only source of light coming thru a small round window inside the very cell.

"Go away Nigel, I don't have anything to talk with you" another figure spoke from within the cell. His deep voiced indicated he was much older than the other but at the same time seemed more tired and weak.

Nigel Uno removed his red hood to look better at the figure inside the cell. It was an old friend of his, who had happened to have gotten himself straddled in a very complicated situation. The blond teenager had once been his role model, his teacher, one of the best kids- next-door operatives of his time. But today he had been chained and beaten to a pulp without mercy, his navy blue sweater completely tattered and his brown pants stained with dirt and perhaps his own blood even.

And yet, the boy looked even stronger and more determined than Nigel had ever seen him.

"Look it doesn't matter anyway, I spoke with Numbuh 74.239 and I agreed to do it…it's going to happen Chad, just…just accept it already…at least you should be thankful they're not sending you back to Earth" Nigel shouted at him angrily and turned around to leave, his long red hooded jacket waved slowly with the faint gravity of the ship.

Chad reminded silent as Nigel's footsteps became a faint echo in the darkness. He looked up at the surveillance camera above the laser bars and then glanced at the cell's window. "Alright…maybe it's time to call for support…"

To be continued…


	2. Welcome to the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sincere apologies for any grammatical mistake presented, english is not my first language.
> 
> Please check the cover art for this chapter on my KicaCris tumblr page! I always post art related to this story there and on my other social media ( @KicaCris ) 
> 
> Codename: Kids-Next-Door is a show created by Mr. Warburton and co-owned by Cartoon Network. Characters presented in this story are of their intellectual property.

**Now loading :**

**Galactic-Kids-Next-Door mission**

**Operation:**

**A.L.P.H.A.**

** Chapter 2:  **

**Welcome to the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door!**

_“DON’T DO IT NIGEL!”_

_“THIS ISN’T WHAT THE KIDS-NEXT-DOOR IS ABOUT!”_

 

 

**(6 days and 12 hours before)**

 

A red screen with a beeping typing bar flashed in front of the eyes of a shadowed figure.

 

[INSERT NUMERICAL IDENTIFICATION]

 

[INSERT PASSWORD]

 

“Welcome galactic-level operative, Numbuh 1. Do you wish to start a new log date?” Press Y or N for confirmation” the computer greeted in its usual female mechanical voice thru the visor glasses of Nigel Uno.

 

He raised a hand and swiftly began to type over a holographic keyboard that his visors produced for him.

 

[LOG DATE 02 08 15]

 

[OPERATIVE NUMERICAL IDENTIFICATION: NUMBUH 1]

 

[DAILY REPORT ENTRY # 365]

 

[CURRENTLY LOCATION: PLUTO’S ORBITAL HUB]

 

“You may now start recording” the computer confirmed as Nigel cleared his throat and sat comfortably on his bunker bed, leaning his back on the wall while crossing his arms behind his head.

 

“Log date 2-8-15, this is Numbuh 1 reporting from Pluto’s orbital hub. Last training mission on Neptune’s base was a success…another cleaning emergency by Numbuh Ordinal commands…my team and I performed a janitorial diploid with no issues to report aside from the obvious lack of complete effort from Numbuh Geo-4, who I’m still 100% sure he’s just a rock and not a supposedly great operative from Sediment Minor…GKND continues to troll me with these useless training missions….”

 

Numbuh 1 rubbed his temples tiredly, his patience running thin as he continued his log date. “It’s been 365 days already and I’m starting to seriously consider the only reason GKND chose me as their first Earth operative was to make me work as their galactic janitor!” he grabbed a pillow and threw it to the other side of the room angrily.

 

The pillow landed on a large ball of fur that lowly growled back in a complaint.

 

Numbuh 1 jumped slightly in surprise as the large furry purple ball moved and the big head of a cat-looking alien glared at him. “Oh sorry, Numbuh 9L, I didn’t turn on the lights of the room so I didn’t see you already sleeping, so very sorry!” he nervously apologized to his fellow roommate.

 

Numbuh 9L angrily purred and with a large yawn, she curled herself back into her usual balled sleeping form.

 

Nigel signed in relief and smiled down at one of his only friends in this whole adventure.

 

He had met his feline friend during his very first day at the GKND main Omega-Ship at one of the many tests the galactic command had given them to try their “endurance”, as they still continue to insist to this day. Together they have managed to free the ship’ sewers from a giant asteroid that had been blocking the toilets’ water system for weeks, and Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 9L had ended up becoming friends after saving each other’s butt from almost getting drown in the process. She had grown especially overprotective of him ever since then, always walking beside him and hissing away any alien bully who even thought of doing a practical joke on him.

 

Numbuh 9L was one of the biggest GKND weaponry expert he had ever met so far, a massive two-tailed purple striped cat that always had a belt/saddle full of different cool artifacts and weapons with her. She didn’t speak human English but Nigel seemed to still understand her just fine without the need of using his visor glasses to translate for him, as her large curly eyebrows usually expressed more than any bug-eyed operative in the force.

 

Sadly, she was the sole survivor of a cat alien race from Leo Stars System as her planet had been completely overrun by adults and GKND had had no choice but to destroy it.

 

_They had had no choice._

 

Nigel glanced over the large round window of their spacious shared room and looked at Pluto with a pensive frown. The room he now lived in was big but simple, with a bunk bed right next to a small desk with a computer desktop, a sofa in front of a flat TV screen and a bookshelf full of video games. Next to the room’s main entrance was a second door that leaded to a full-equipped bathroom and next to that door there you could find a closet full of GKND uniforms. Numbuh 9L had her own large cat bed next to the main entrance of the room but sometimes she would be found sleeping on the sofa next to the window. There were no decorations as GKND was against personal customization, so the walls were all of the same metallic green copper colors and the interior “lamps” were the same magenta luminescent trees similar to the one the KND Moonbase had always stood up from the very first KND era.

 

Numbuh 1 looked at the silver planet and began to ponder about his solo adventure. Ever since he left Earth a year ago, he had learned a lot of things from GKND. Some of them have been good and amazing discoveries but there were also some other… more controversial stuff. The Galactic-Kids-Next-Door had proven to be so much more than what he had initially expected it, more than just a huge intergalactic organization made of children from all over the universe that had been fighting universal adult tyranny for thousands of years.

 

_They had had no choice._

 

Nigel had discovered that, although they have never officially said it out loud, the Galactic KND were truly so committed to their cause that they had never hesitated on taking the most extreme measures to accomplish their goal. According to Numbuh 74.239, they were certain adulthood was, in reality, a mere deadly virus that had been spreading across the galaxy for eons and GKND had taken the duty of eradicating the deadly disease from the universe at all costs.

 

Adulthood was a plague that had managed to consume entire planets to the point of no possible salvation whatsoever, like in the case of Numbuh 9L’s home planet.

 

“It’s like in those human zombie movies, you know? If you find the cure to the virus then the planet is saved, but if not…well, it’s definitely doomsday!” Numbuh 74.239 told him once.

 

He thought about his parents, his friends…was it that really it? Adulthood could really be just a virus? He had never liked the concept of vaccines or medicines before, as he had always believed those where just mere control mechanisms the adults liked to force kids to accept, but he wondered now… if GKND was right then, could the disease be cured?

 

 

He looked at his reflection on the window and carefully noticed every single change his body was already going thru as he was getting closer to his 12th birthday. He had gotten taller, he knew, as the GKND had given him new clothes 6 months ago, his chin had gotten more angular and his voice now sounded a little bit deeper. Of course, there were still barely noticeable changes but his over-analytic mind was already firing the alarms in his head.

 

He thought about his friends…Numbuh 5 and 2 were probably 12 by now. He clenched his fists in determination.

 

 _“We’ll save you guys”_ he mentally promised.

 

A hissing electronic sound suddenly startled him and turning his eyes from the window he saw the door of his room getting opened. He blinked silently as a taller blond boy, dressed in a shabby navy blue hooded sweater, ragged brown knee length pants and dirty gray space boots entered the room escorted by two fully amored GKND operatives. The teenager had many bruises and scratches all over his skin but didn’t seem tired nor in pain albeit his apparent beaten up condition.

 

“You did good on today tests, Numbuh 274,” one of the masked operatives said while he helped to release Chad from his handcuffs. “Numbuh 74.239 will soon come to report to you and Numbuh 1. A message will be sent for additional tests-”

 

“Yeah, yeah I know. More tests” Chad replied with no interest as he massaged his wrists freely.

 

“Good night then, Numbuh 274, 1 and 9L” the two guards turned around and the door once again closed.

 

Chad turned to glare at the door as Numbuh 1 hurried out of his bed to check on him.

 

“So, how were today’s tests?” Nigel asked excitedly, his eyes brimming with hope.

 

Numbuh 274 looked at him with an arched eyebrow, “What do you think? Same old same” he walked past him towards his bunk bed, which was the one on top of Nigel’s.

 

Numbuh 1’s face faulted, his hopes crushed once again “no progress then? What did they make to you do this time?” he pressed on but his vision suddenly went blind with a discarded smelly sweater thrown at his face.

 

“They made me run about 20k in the treadmill, then ordered me to fight some big crab-like alien adults they had for their experiments with a bunch of sensor stickers attached to my arms and legs, then they gave me another brain-scan, they checked my vision, my reflexes, my heart-beats” Chad enlisted as he changed to a new and cleaner navy blue hooded sweater and a new pair of dark brown knee length shorts.

 

“The usual lab-rat treatment,” Chad said lowly, “at least they let me shower after the tests this time…but I had to dress again on the same dirty clothes I was wearing…I might need another shower now that I think about it” the ex-Supreme Leader rambled as he took off his boots and socks to be completely barefoot.

 

Nigel took the shirt off his face to look again at the veteran KND operative. Contrary to him, Chad had purposely worked very hard to be noticed by the galactics, to the point in which GKND ended up acknowledging his undying resolution and loyalty to the fight against adult tyranny despite him being technically a “teenager”.

 

However, Nigel and he would later discover the real reason the GKND had ended up taking Chad too was for the purpose of studying closely the effects of the virus in him, in an attempt to develop a cure or a vaccine for the people of Earth.

 

Nigel had seen this as the most ultimate altruist mission any Earth KND operative could ever aspire to accomplish, a mission worth being written in the Book of KND even, a legendary tale of how one turned-13 KND operative redeemed himself and ended up saving his entire planet from the complete annihilation of a deadly aging virus.

 

But Chad had an entirely different opinion about the mission.

 

“Nigel stop giving me that sad hopeless look, you know I’m not really sick” Numbuh 274 scolded him with his arms crossed over his chest, “It doesn’t matter how many tests they make me go thru, the results are always going to be the same because adulthood is not a virus!”

 

Nigel gasped as he turned to look at Numbuh 9L who was now awake and looking heartbroken. “Don’t say that in front of Numbuh 9L! There’s gotta be a way to cure-“

 

“No there is not” Chad insisted with a knowing arched eyebrow.

 

“Look, if you really believe there’s no cure then why do you keep taking the GKND tests?!” Nigel barked back at him and Numbuh 9L glanced to him and then to Chad expectantly.

 

“I keep doing the tests not because I believe it’s going to work, you 8-ball-head” he walked towards Numbu 9L and softly scratched one of her ears fondly, making her purr happily. He smiled sadly at her “Sorry about that girl…but if you really want to know, I keep doing the tests because I know I will eventually get the attention of the Galactic Supreme Leader”.

 

Numbuh 9L and Nigel went wide-eyed at his revelation, “You want to speak to the-why?!” Nigel grabbed his head in shock.

 

“Well, first of all…” he patted Numbuh 9L’s to calm her down again, “because he had never faced us not even once ever since we boarded the ship almost a year ago. What kind of Supreme Leader is he if he doesn’t meet the new recruits-”

 

“Please tell me you’re not expecting me to believe you have a beef with the Galactic Supreme Command because they are not following the right welcoming protocols” Nigel cut him mid-sentence with a bored frown.

 

Chad blushed embarrassed; “well I do find it quite disrespectful! Especially because I’m an ex-Supreme-“

 

Nigel rolled his eyes largely.

 

“Ok fine, that’s not the only reason I want him to notice us…” he smiled as Numbuh 9L curiously titled her head at him.  

 

“This whole purging and destroying planets that supposedly get overrun by adults…it’s just not right!” he whispered to just Nigel and Numbuh 9L.

 

Numbuh 1 didn't know how to answer to that.

 

“The Earth KND wasn’t created to eliminate all forms of adulthood on the planet, that’s a ridiculously dangerous notion! Not all adults are bad! I can’t really speak in favor of my own parents but do you think your parents are evil?” Chad questioned him.

 

“No!” Nigel quickly answered him, “my parents are good adults-“

 

“Exactly! And not all kids are good either, take for example the Delightful-“

 

“But they were good BEFORE!”

 

“…ok fair enough, that was actually Father’s fault I guess, but what about the Interesting Twins Beneath the Mountain?”

 

“The twins? Wait-how do you know about them-?”

 

“Remember when I told you about how I helped you and Sector V on the sidelines?”

 

“Oh right…well as far as I know, they could probably have a similar story as the DCFTL…” Nigel shrugged as he remembered how the twins had the same scary looking eyes and talked in a similar manner as his arch nemesis.

 

Chad pondered the possibility for a second, “uhm! you might be right about that…Well, there are still the Six Gum Gang, who were the bullies in your old school, the Rowdy Hooligans, the Annoyingly cute Triplets who lived upon the hill, and let’s not forget about Numbuh Ome- ”

 

“Alright! Alright! I admit it! Sure there are SOME evil kids too, but they all had been direct consequences of evil adults doing so your case has no point…and please, were you really going to name Omega just now? He’s just a KND fairy tale-“

 

“A KND FAIRY TALE?!” Chad suddenly snapped at him outraged.

 

_“Well look at you both finally getting along after a whole year, isn’t it quite nice?”_

 

Chad and Nigel turned towards their room’s main door as Numbuh 74.239 entered alongside Lizzie who had a silver box in her hands.

 

Numbuh 1, 274 and 9L quickly straightened themselves up and military greeted them.

 

“Good evening Numbuh 74.239… **Numbuh Vine** …” Nigel said sourly making Lizzie look away embarrassed. It’s been months since he had found out about Lizzie’s true identity as the undercover plant-alien operative named Numbuh Vine and was still resentful at her. He just couldn’t believe the nerve of her! Especially since she always had made it pretty clear to him how much she hated the constant lies and cover-ups he had had to come up with when they were still dating only to discover later that she too had been lying to him about who she really was the whole time.

 

“Oh please Nigel, there is no need for such formalities! We might not be the same species but Numbuh Vine and I have spent so much time on Earth that we barely remember now that we actually don’t need to eat food like you humans do, right Lizzie?” he friendly nudged his female companion.

 

“Yes, of course, we’re still friends…right?” she timidly said but Nigel only frowned deeper at her

 

“Sometimes I wish photosynthesis could taste as good as-“

 

Chad cleared his throat loudly to refocus Numbuh 74.239 attention, “weren’t you going to report us about something, Numbuh 74.239-“

 

“Oh please Chad, just call me Gabe, it’s way shorter than saying that obnoxious long numerical identification” he waved his hand in an annoyed gesture, “and yes I do have two important things to report to you!... Well actually three-well ok, first of all, congratulations Numbuh 1, you have FINALLY been promoted and will no longer be part of the janitor team- I mean – the Sediment Minor Sector! Yay!” he clapped as Lizzie smiled happily.

 

“REALLY?!” Nigel lost his military stance and gaped excitedly. “OH THANK NUMBUH ZERO FINALLY!” he jumped with his fists raised in the air.

 

“Well that’s actually some cool news, congrats baldie” Chad patted his shoulder and proudly smiled at him just as Numbuh 9L licked his bald head in a congratulating manner.

 

“Second of all…Chad, today’s tests came out with no changes so…I’m afraid we still haven’t found any clue to stop your aging condition…I’m really sorry-“

 

“That’s fine” Numbuh 274 cut him dismissively, “we just have to keep trying” he monotonously lied, earning an arched eyebrow from Nigel.

 

“That’s the spirit! You really are the bravest KND operative, Numbuh 274! Always looking after others’ well being first. Oh, you certainly will give a great first impression to our Galactic Supreme Leader tomorrow-“ Gabe suddenly revealed.

 

“Wait-what?!”

 

“Chad is going to meet the Galactic Supreme Leader tomorrow?!” Numbuh 1 shouted and Numbuh 9L’s fur bristled in shock.

 

Lizzie suddenly frowned worriedly.

 

“Not only Chad but you too Nigel! He wants to meet both of you personally tomorrow morning!” Numbuh 74.239 produced confetti from one of his lab coat’s pockets.

 

“YES!” Chad fist bumped.

 

“Oh what an honor! What should we wear? What should we say?” Nigel began to question nervously while pulling from Chad’s hoodie.

 

“Don’t worry! Numbuh Vine, Numbuh Infinity and myself will be there with you to back you up. I believe one of the reasons he wants to finally meet you is because he’s going to personally assign Numbuh 1 to his new galactic-level mission” he explained, “and as for Chad, well he surely has heard a lot about your achievements and must be really impressed about all the things you have done for the GKND cause-“

 

“Wait a minute” Numbuh 274 interrupted again, “you don’t know why he wants to meet us?”.

 

Numbuh 74.239 paused and scratched his orange curly hair as Lizzie kept frowning with worry. “Well, I mean, no…his message just said he wanted to personally meet you tomorrow, nothing else, but it doesn’t matter! He never summons anybody to the Omega Main Orbit Base unless he has a very good reason!” he snickered and waved his hand good-naturally as if it was a well-known fact about all the galactic operatives.

 

Chad and Nigel exchanged questioning glances but said nothing.

 

“In other news” Lizzie suddenly spoke again, shaking the metallic box in her hands, “I have brought your communicators to call your parents as per weekly protocol, here”.

 

Lizzie handed Nigel a heavy old block shaped cell phone, “I still think Numbuh Zero should have given you a better communication device to call home” she commented sarcastically and finally earned a small smile from Numbuh 1.

 

“If dad had managed to keep his memories, he would have probably given me something cooler but this still works fine” he took the old thing from Lizzie’s box and fondly smiled.

 

Numbuh Vine nervously shook her head as she caught herself smiling dreamingly at him, “oh, and I also have yours here Chad” she said as she grabbed a much modern red iPhone, “You don’t have to be so shy and always text them you know? You should actually speak with your parents!” Lizzie rolled her eyes at what she thought was his usual teenager antics while handing the phone.

 

“Nah, texts are fine with them, trust me, I don’t really want to hear my mom crying over how much longer this abroad study trip is going to last or if I speak Spanish fluently already” he mimicked his mom’s pitchy voice while turning his iPhone on.

 

“Teenagers! What can you do? Right, Lizzie?” Numbuh 74.239 laughed, oblivious at Chad's offended glare.

 

Lizzie did notice it so she quickly decided to continue explaining her instructions to lighten up the tension.

 

“Remember, you’ll have your usual 10 minutes to speak with your parents and then a GKND guard will come to take your phones back so please speak as much as you can with them ‘cause you won’t be allowed to speak with them until next week. Remember your script: You’re both studying Spanish abroad, specifically in Madrid, it’s nighttime in your current time zone while it’s barely noon in America, if they ask you if you have received any presents from them, you must say ‘yes’” Gabe handled them both a list of the objects both their parents have been sending them so far to the fake address they assigned in Madrid. “if you sense the minimal insinuation of them wanting to visit you, you must proceed as per protocol. If they ask you when are you returning home, you must respond vaguely by insisting there are still other language levels to achieve. Here I made a list of possible Spanish phrases you can say in case they-“

 

“Thank you, Lizzie and Gabe, uhm I think we’re already familiar with the standard communication protocol by now” Nigel rubbed the back of his head and smiled awkwardly at them.

 

“hohoho right, right, it’s been already a year!” he laughed “we’ll go now, make sure to program your alarms at 06:00 hours galactic time ‘cause a ship will be departing to the Omega Orbit Base at 06:30 hours. I have a feeling it’s going to be a memorable morning tomorrow!” he turned around and walked towards the door.

 

Lizzie stood immobile for a second and Nigel though for a moment she wanted to say something else.

 

“Come on Numbuh Vine, let’s give the boys some privacy and see if the tech department has already figured out how to turn off these ridiculous human disguises already! I can’t deal with everybody staring at us all the time on the hallways” Lizzie heard Gabe said and she hesitantly looked back at Chad and Nigel before stepping out of the room too.

 

The door closed and the trio was once again alone in the room.

 

“Was Lizzie-?”

 

“Who knows?” Numbuh 1 shrugged annoyingly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s hiding more stuff from me-“

 

Numbuh 274 smirked cheekily at him, “wow, who would have thought Nigel Uno would be the type of guy who holds a grudge against an ex-girlfriend” he mockingly said.

 

“Shut your teen mouth!” he grumbled with a crimson blush, “I’ll call from the bathroom this time!” he quickly made a run to the bathroom and slammed the door hard before the older operative could even react.

 

Chad just shook his head and looked at Numbuh 9L who seemed to be smiling under her whiskers, “pre-teens, what can you do?” he chuckled and walked towards the sofa with her.

 

 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

A few minutes later, Nigel emerged from the bathroom with the old cellphone in his hands and an annoyed frown.

 

“I don’t know who is the current KND Supreme Leader, but if he or she had the NERVE to re-locate Sector W to MY tree house!-I really hope I’m just misinterpreting dad’s words but Tommy playing in the tree house with Sonya and Lee EVERY DAY doesn’t sound right to me – I know there is extra space left in my wing but I don’t think our base is big enough for two sectors-“

 

Nigel sharply stopped his ramblings upon noticing something very very odd.

 

Chad Dickson, tough guy, the best there was KND operative, ex-Supreme Leader, was smiling uncharacteristically lovingly at his cell phone with glossy eyes.

 

“uhm…are you ok?” Numbuh 1 cautiously asked, not sure of how to approach this unheard reaction coming from the teen.

 

Chad looked up from his cellphone at him still smiling, “oh yeah it’s fine, I’m just talking with mom and dad and felt a bit nostalgic”.

 

And for the first time Numbuh 1 actually thought something was terribly wrong with the teen, “ok maybe we should call Numbuh 74.239 ‘cause something must have gotten you bad if you suddenly feel nostalgic about _your parents_!”

 

Chad rolled his eyes at him, “for the last time, IM.NOT.SICK. You’re so paranoid” his phone made a wobbling sound as a new message was received. He chuckled and began to tap an answer.

 

Curious as ever, Numbuh 1 walked towards to sofa and peeked at Chad’s cellphone screen. He was still very unfamiliar with the teenager concept of ‘texting’ but he had been trained on the basics. He knew teens preferred to use cellphones as their primary communication device and it was pretty common among them to partake in different ‘chat groups’ to talk about different nonsensical topics. But since they were taken by the GKND, Chad had been bound to only communicate with his parents and nobody else, and so he willingly created a chat group with both his parents so he could communicate with them at the same time without a problem. GKND would always check the transcripts of the conversations to make sure they weren’t infiltrating any kind of information to the adults and so far neither he nor Nigel had gotten any problems.

 

Numbuh 1 arched an eyebrow as the blue label with the name “MOM” wrote to Chad about how happy she was for having been accepted in some sort of exclusive Golf Club, while the green label that read “DAD” sent a thumbs and a laughing emoji in response.

 

“Uh, they don’t sound as bad as I remember…that’s one strange way of communication thou” Numbuh 1 commented as the blue and green labels kept sending different silly messages using emojis.

 

“Meh, they’re trying to be ‘hip’ I guess” he continued to smile softly at the screen.

 

 _“Your uncle Antonio is going to be in Madrid next week! It would be nice if you have time to visit him!”_ Nigel read the blue label of Chad’s mom text.

_“Yeah or if you need anything, you know you can call him!”_ the green label of Chad’s dad immediately wrote after.

Numbuh 1 side-eyed at Chad who suddenly stopped smiling and seemed deep in thought.

 

“Uhm maybe tell them we have to study this weekend for another exam so you can excuse yourself?” he suggested and Numbuh 274 quickly shook his head to wake himself again.

 

“Oh yeah, you’re right…” Chad quickly wrote his answer right when a knock was heard on their room’s door. Numbuh 1 found quite odd the way he always seemed to behave differently whenever he texted his parents.

 

 _“GTG now, I’ll write to you again next week. Bye!”_ he sent the message and in seconds both his parents quickly answered back.

 

_“Ok, good luck son, we miss you!”_

_“Texts us if you need anything, xoxo”_

 

And with that Chad turned off the phone as a GKND guard entered with a silver metallic tray. Nigel and he walked towards him and handed over the phones to him. The guard made a military salute and left the room.

 

“So…what do you think the Galactic Supreme Leader is going to be like? Numbuh 1 thought out loud as he rushed towards the closet to change into his pj’s, “I don’t even know what his numerical identification is! Numbuh Infinity and 74.239 always refer to him as Galactic Supreme Leader”

 

“Uhmm…” Chad wondered too as he climbed the top of the bunk bed, “now that I think of it…he’s not exactly a fan of showing himself, isn’t he? Always hiding behind that ridiculous blinding yellow light and sounding so omnipotent by using many overlapping voices…” he commented as he laid down on his bed.

 

“Well, I guess he’s allowed to be a little ‘extra’ if he’s the Galactic Supreme Leader, right?” Nigel turned the lights off and jumped on his bed excitedly, “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep much tonight, can’t wait for tomorrow!”.

 

But Chad didn’t answer him anymore.

 

 

 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

 

The next day, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 274 arrived at the famous Omega Main Orbital Base around 10:00 am as scheduled. The space ship was the same ship Nigel had boarded a year ago when he had been informed about his acceptance among the ranks of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door: impressively massive and threatening regardless of its birthday cake-like shape and all. The ship could easily contain 5 times the KND Moon Base and still have extra space for all other space ships and vehicles.

 

Nigel and Chad walked behind the alien forms of Numbuh 74.239 and Numbuh Vine as they stepped out of the space ship that had picked them up at Pluto’s Orbital Hub.

 

The hangar was that day specially crowed, with many alien operatives working on the space ships that were currently parked there.

 

“Welcome back to the Omega Orbital Base, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 274” a talking big-eyed weasel alien wearing a bowtie greeted them. Nigel and Chad immediately recognized him upon noticing the trademark bowtie of Numbuh Infinity.

 

“Good morning, Numbuh Infinity, sir!” they both saluted him respectfully while trying to not look too surprised at his real alien form. They kinda always considered him some sort of a ‘weasel’ but never imagined he was ACTUALLY one.

 

“At ease soldiers! Today is a grand day! The Galactic Supreme Emperor is already waiting for us so please follow me!” he turned around and began to walk ahead of Lizzie and Gabe.

 

“Did he just say 'emperor'?” Numbuh 1 whispered.

 

“I think our translators misworded that part” Numbuh 274 tapped one of his earplugs and tried to reboot the auricular translators they always carried on with them.

 

The way to the commanding bridge was very long as it was located at the top of the space ship. Walking thru the many corridors, they would occasionally meet with alien operatives who upon recognizing them, they reacted in the same disgusting manner Nigel and Chad had been used to by now: the disapproval glares, the whispers, the hurried marches to get as far away from them as possible…

 

“People seem to be extra delighted of seeing us around here once again…” Numbuh 1 commented sarcastically.

 

“I bet they aren’t exactly happy to see me walking around with no handcuffs…by the way, thanks for that Gabe” Chad sounded genuinely grateful for the gesture.

 

“No problem! I want to leave it clear now that I never agreed on the handcuffs, such an unnecessary thing to be honest, but you know how Numbuh Nominal is. She sometimes reminds me of Numbuh 86, you know? But instead of detesting boys she hates teenagers with some raging passion” Numbuh 74.239 shrugged, his branches squeaking with the gesture.

 

“You can’t blame her for taking precautions, no offense Numbuh 274, but you must know how unpredictable teenagers can be, right?” Infinity chipped in the conversation as they rounded a corner and stepped on a very long holographic stairway.

 

Nigel glanced at Chad who kept quiet after Numbuh Infinity’s remark. Before working with Numbuh 274, he too had regarded teenagers with the same disdain and prejudice most KND and GKND operatives felt but now…well, at least he didn’t feel like that towards Chad, not after everything he has done for their cause.

 

They were approaching the top of the stairway when Numbuh Infinity turned around and cleared his throat before speaking again, “All right listen up. The Galactic Supreme Emperor –(oh no it definitely wasn’t a mistranslation)- is the most respected and high ranked operative of the entire universe, so you must regard him with the highest respect your carbon-based brains are capable of. Do not talk unless he allows it and always answers him if he directly addresses you. You must refer to him as ‘his grace’ instead of ‘sir´, as that is his rank and nothing less. Refrain from using any kind of ‘slang’ nor any other human cultural reference he can't understand because he’s not exactly a fan of humans in general” he pulled from his bowtie nervously as Chad and Nigel digested everything he had just explained.

 

“Wait a sec-what do you mean with him not being a fan of humans in general?” Chad couldn’t help himself to ask.

 

“Oh don’t listen to Numbuh Infinity, our Galactic Supreme Emperor has already moved on from his last…tragic encounter with the humans. Infinity is just being paranoid as his usual self” Numbuh 74.239 failed to calm their worries.

 

“Last encounter with the humans?! What do you mean by that? Aren’t we the first human operatives ever selected to be part of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door?” Nigel looked at the back of the floating alien figure of Lizzie who had remained oddly silent the entire trip.

 

“Well, of course, you both are but that doesn’t mean he had never interacted with humans before, silly!” Gabe admitted again with no concern, “but it didn’t go well the first time for him, you know? It took him a long time to finally decide to give anybody from Earth another chance”.

 

Soon enough they reached the top of the stairs and came face to face with two large ornamented doors that had a several alien symbols circling around one sign that vibrantly shown neon purple.

 

Chad and Nigel recognized it as the Omega symbol.

 

“Numbuh Infinity…what’s the name of our…Galactic Supreme Leader?” Chad finally decided to ask the question that had been bothered him for months.

 

Numbuh Infinity and Numbuh 74.239 raised their eyebrows in surprise, “you don’t know? I thought we had mentioned it before-didn’t we?” Gabe pondered while scratching his red leaves “I guess we always refer to him as Galactic Supreme Emperor”

 

 ** _“Numbuh Omega”_** everybody looked at Numbuh Vine as she silently revealed to them, her long green vines slightly shaking.

 

Chad held his breath and lost all his colors in seconds while Nigel blinked confusedly.

 

“Numbuh Omega? Seriously? He chose to name himself after the old fairy tale character?” Numbuh 1 put his hands on his hips not believing his own translator now, “and here I thought only earth KND cadets believed in that story”.

 

Numbuh Infinity and 74.239 looked at each other and began to laugh loudly. They crunched and whizzed as they laughed, and laughed for an entire minute much to Nigel’s annoyance.

 

“Uhm did I say something funny?”

 

“Hohohoho I’m sorry Nigel my friend. It wasn’t our intention to mock you” Numbuh Infinity wiped a laughing tear out his eyes as he recomposed himself. “I completely forgot you humans know so little about GKND history”

 

Numbuh 1 looked even more confused.

 

“It’s not a fairy tale, Nigie” Lizzie spoke again and Nigel looked at the worried pair of glowing green eyes that looked at him with concern under the flower pot helmet, “that story really happened thousands of years ago” her voice sounded small and frightened.

 

“Oh…Ok...” he didn’t know how to process the revelation “ok well…that wouldn’t be the first KND story that turns out to be true I guess” Nigel nervously laughed, “the Galactic Supreme Leader must be into that story very much if he decided to use that name again-

 

“Oh no no, you have it wrong Nigel” Numbuh Infinity interrupted him.

 

“Yeah, he’s not a new Numbuh Omega, no. He’s THE Numbuh Omega, the only one there has ever been!” Numbuh 74.239 said with his arms raised towards the giant Omega symbol that covered the doors.

 

Chad suddenly growled, “That’s impossible! He would be a bazillion of years old! He can’t be alive nor still be a KND operative!” somehow he seemed deadly pissed with this piece of news.

 

“That would be the case if he was like any common alien operative of the force, but Emperor Omega is the last prince of an extinct alien race from the Nebula Galaxy who had managed to be born with the rare gift of the eternal youth! So yes, even though he’s essentially over the highest alien childhood age limit currently known, he’s physically and mentally as young as Numbuh 1 here” Gabe scientifically elaborated to Chad’ shock.

 

“He-he’s e-eternally young?” Numbuh 274 stammered with furious clenched teeth.

 

“Yes! That’s why he’s the Galactic Supreme Emperor, you know? And well he created the GKND and stuff, so he’s the only one who has always been and will always be the Supreme Leader of all!” Numbuh Infinity nodded in agreement.

 

Numbuh 1 didn’t know what to say anymore. Of all the stories he had already read from the Book of KND, the story of the battle between the very first known KND sector against a foe named “Omega” was probably the last one he ever considered to have some certain veracity. There wasn’t much detailed information about how it happened or why it happened, as it had happened during the foundation of KND and the only thing it was said was the outcome of the fight was considered to be the very first registered victory of a KND team. But that meant if Numbuh Omega was the same character of that story, then that meant…not only The Galactic-Kids-Next-Door had already been on Earth before, but they also… had been enemies of Earth’s KND before too.

 

“You mean to tell me we’re about to meet the bastard who had wanted to obliterate our planet since the 1st Era of KND?!” Nigel heard Chad snarl furiously.

 

“Now, now, Chad, please calm down! What happened thousands of years ago is in the past. Plus! Modern GKND regulations clearly say that only galactic-level operatives can request the planetary decommission of his or her home planet if they personally consider their planet unsalvable. That’s a pretty new law that our Galactic Supreme Emperor wrote himself centuries after that battle on Earth, and trust me our leader takes the rules very seriously” Gabe cautiously explained to the taller blond boy in hopes to appease him.

 

“Exactly!” Numbuh Vine suddenly exclaimed while grabbing Numbuh 1 by one of his shoulders, “technically speaking, the only ones who can request a planetary decommission for Earth would be you or Numbuh 274 and none else! Not even our Galactic Supreme Emperor can enforce such decision…it’s ok because Earth doesn’t need such a drastic measure, right?” her translucent green face changed to a much blue hue in response to her emotions.

 

Nigel looked at Lizzie’s eyes with uncertainty, as he remembered the last census report of Earth he had read had left him a bit alarmed at the terrifying increase of the adult population.

 

“Of course! There’s no need for that!” he said but failed to sound convincing.

 

Chad took deep breath and pintching the bridge of his nose he forced his anger to subside, “All right then…” he said while looking suddenly very determined.

 

“That’s more like it! Let’s go!”

 

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

The GKND Command Bridge was very dark with the only source of light coming from the large window walls that went all along the large room and up to the ceiling, making it feel as if there were no actual walls at all and its occupants were actually walking in the open space. There was a magnificent view of several planets of the Solar System, with Earth looking as small as a tennis ball from where the Omega Central Ship was stationed near Neptune. The room was bigger than the KND Moon Base auditorium but was completely empty. There were no computer desks nor any furniture, no operatives walking around or working.

 

It was just a massive empty room with a spectacular view.

 

Upon reaching the center, Numbuh 74.239, Numbuh Vine and Numbuh Infinity suddenly kneeled. Nigel and Chad looked around them nervously, looking for any figure or anything at all aside from them but the room remained empty.

 

“Galactic Supreme Emperor Numbuh Omega, I, Numbuh Infinity, along with my colleagues of the GKND Delegation that were sent to Earth 5 years ago to scout for potential galactic-level operatives recruits, have come today to formally present to you the two humans operatives we chose as per your command!”.

 

Infinity’s voice echoed loudly across the empty room, the sound of their own breathing was the only thing heard.

 

Nigel and Chad looked at each other as if silently questioning what was supposed to happen now when a bright yellow column of light suddenly appeared in front of them.

 

“Galactic-Kids-Next-Door rule!” several synthetic voices said at the same time as Nigel and Chad looked up to see the same big round yellow light they were already accustomed to relate with the Galactic Supreme Leader.

 

“Galactic-Kids-Next-Door rule!” they all answered back at the blinding light as per protocol. Numbuh Vine discreetly moved two of her vines and tapped Chad and Nigel’s shoulders to instruct them to also kneel and they quickly did as she recommended them.

 

 _“Ah yes, the new human galactic-level operatives, I’ve been anxiously expecting you hehehe”_ the voices chuckled sinisterly right when a humming sound began to be heard as the yellow light seemed to descend.

 

Numbuh 1 and 274 raised their eyes to discover the yellow light they have always seen was in reality a floating platform all along and was now slowly descending towards them. It stopped still several feet away before some holographic neon yellow stairs began to materialize in the air, reaching down the floor where they were currently standing.

 

Hearing their hearts loud in their ears, Nigel and Chad saw the most different alien they have ever seen in their lives so far.

 

He was as tall as Chad, slender but athletic, but what shocked them the most was his skin as it looked like a starry night sky, all dark and splattered with glowing freckles that seemed to shine. His hair, if you could call it like that, was wild like a flame but it didn’t seem like it was a separated part of his head but just a floating continuation of his skin. His eyes were big and white, his irises colored light lilac, with more glowing freckles dusted under his eyes and over where his nose was supposed to be if he had it. He was clad in what they thought was a much-sophisticated version of their samurai armor, all shiny black with a few purple neon lines that went along the sides of his very pointy shoulder pads, his belt, and boots, and on his chest protector was a diamond-shaped piece that glowed neon purple with the Omega Symbol in the middle.

 

He was probably the scariest and most ethereal being their eyes had ever seen.

 

As he finally reached the floor, Omega smirked knowingly at them, with his flame-like hair floating as if he was submerged under water. “Please allow me to introduce myself” he said in his real nasal voice.

 

“I’m **Numbuh Omega** , Galactic Supreme Emperor…welcome to the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door, human operatives Numbuh 1 and …ex-Numbuh 274”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N.: 
> 
> I want to credit Prisoner-24 (on tumblr) for Numbuh Infinity physical alien appearance (Go check their blog! It’s really super cool). Also, Numbuh 1’s mention of his time in the Sediment Minor Sector is from Tom Warburton’s blog, just as the character concepts of Numbuh 74.239, Numbuh Vine, Numbuh 9L and Numbuh Geo-4 belong to him too.


	3. Setting the Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: 
> 
> My sincere apologies for any grammatical mistake presented, english is not my first language.
> 
> Please check the cover art for this chapter on my KicaCris tumblr page! I always post art related to this story there and on my other social media ( @KicaCris ) 
> 
> Codename: Kids-Next-Door is a show created by Mr. Warburton and co-owned by Cartoon Network. Characters presented in this story are of their intellectual property.

**Now loading :**

** Galactic-Kids-Next-Door mission **

** Operation: ** **A.L.P.H.A.**

**Story written by Cris Carvalho**

**Complimentary art can be found in my social medias @KicaCris**

****

** Chapter 3: **

**Setting the game**

 

There are many stories in the KND history lore. Stories about heroic feats, transcending discoveries and awesome conquers. Tales about sour defeats and never forgotten losses also.

There are so many legends about the fight against adult tyranny.

But sadly, the most well-known stories are those from this modern era of KND, since it was in this time where technology advanced enough to allow us to properly document every single event that happened from the very first moment Numbuh Zero rose to initiate it.

Truth to be told, we might never really grasp the scale of how much KND history there really is.

But thankfully we have the Book of KND, the only official source we have that more or less shows us some of the missing pieces of our history. Every single page contains hand-written testimonies of these forgotten KND times.

One particular tale fills the very first page of this book, the story that started it all.

 **The story of Alpha and the origin of KND**.

_Long ago, there were 4 lost kids trying to survive in a world that was barely standing after a terrible great adult war. These lost kids found others just like them who too wished to find a place where they could all be free and happy._

_Bravely and with just a bunch of wooden swords, slingshots, and sticks, the 4 kids lead these lost children and defended them from many evil adults who wished to imprison them on places called "orphanages", so they could become adults and be put in schools and have jobs. But the brave 4 kids were so courageous that their combined spirits made them powerful enough to fight back these evil adults that wanted to harm the children under their protection._

_One fateful night,t while fighting some thieves, the 4 kids were saved by a mysterious person dressed all in white and wielding a sword made of light, who single handily defeated all their enemies by itself. Amazed by the power of this unknown ally, the kids soon discovered the person was a strange looking young girl of their same age named "Alpha". She was like none they have ever met before and didn't seem to even belong to their own world._

_Alpha told them she had come from a very distant place and she too had been helping many other lost kids to find a place she called "Neverland", where kids were free to play and do whatever they ever dreamed. She believed their land was that place and so requested to fight alongside them to help bring change to the grey world._

_Deeply moved by her cause, the 4 kids then took a knee and promised to follow her on her quest to create a better world for all kids._

_She then rewarded their loyalty with special weapons made by the elements of thunder, water, fire and earth. Encouraged by her words and her gifts, the chosen kids then took upon new names to protect their identities: Epsilon, Delta, Gamma, Beta, together with Alpha's lead became what will later be known as the very first all-kid team who valiantly began the worldwide fight against adult tyranny._

_Alpha and her team achieved so many victories across the world that soon inspired not only lost kids but also kids from all different places and conditions to join their fight. Adults began to hide in natural respect and fear of their growing power._

_However one day, a shadowed foe named Omega appeared. Tired of living as Alpha's shadow, he challenged her claiming she was neither brave nor powerful enough to eliminate all adults from the world and end all kids' suffering once and for all._

_At first, Alpha ignored her shadow's threats as if they were a mere child's tantrum. Enraged, Omega tried to strike her with his Shadow Sword but was easily repelled away by Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon's powers. Furious with his extreme irrational ways, Alpha used the power of her Light Sword and combined with the elemental powers of her loyal teammates they banished Omega out of the Earth forever._

_Alpha mourned the loss of her shadow greatly feeling as she had lost a part of herself but reluctantly accepted his sealed fate._

_Victory though lasted very little._

_Sometime after that legendary fight, adults resurfaced again more powerful and dangerous than before._

_It was the_ _**Time Out War** _ _._

_According to the Book of KND, our great leader Alpha was last seen on the battlefield during the final moments of the war. Using the combined powers of the 5 Alpha Weapons, she split the sky in night and day to create a path of light and send her dear team and all her loyalists safely to the moon while she stood behind to ensure their escape._

_With broken hearts but in eternal gratitude, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon promised to complete Alpha's dream and with the help of the survivors they built the very first Moon Base Tree House from the remains of their ancient base on Earth, The Super-Double-Mega-Triple Tree House, and later they'll decide to rename the new all-kid-military-organization based on what Alpha very fondly used to call them all:_

_**The Kids-Next-Door.** _

_In the Book of KND it is stated that Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon were the masterminds behind the current KND organizational structure. They established our numerical identification and sector assignment method, wrote the first draft of our main rules, built the Code Module and even programmed the Super-Big-Computermabob system._

_And then, when the dreadful hook of time and age finally caught them, the four remaining members of Alpha's team decided the dream had been completed and willingly step down as KND leaders, marking the end of the very 1st era of KND._

_Hundreds of years later, the story of Alpha and her sector is nowadays seen as a fantasy, a mere fairy tale still told by some senior KND operatives as a story used to inspire younger cadets. There are certainly no proofs of their existence making it hard to believe that these kids with these fantastical powers started it all._

"One has to wonder how much of these stories are the mere product of over-hyperactive imaginations and how much is actual factual-truths" Numbuh 101 chuckled to a large group of cadets who were sitting with him the Moon Base cafeteria.

He gave a bite to his meatball sandwich and continued, "for example there are stories that supposedly say Numbuh Zero created the missing Sector Z inspired by the legend of Sector Alpha, he even wanted them to carry that same codename at first, but apparently the Supercomputermabob mysteriously denied the request probably due to a programming error or something".

"Ideally, what I think he really wanted was to create a very secret team sector deep inside KND, formed by the most extraordinary operatives of the force, and purportedly put them in charge of the most difficult and dangerous high-ranked missions there were. Tragically, Sector Z never managed to fulfill his dream, but some people believe his idea prevailed and that there is indeed a very high-ranked-top-secret team working in the shadows for KND. Some people speculate they use fake numerical identifications to hide from other fellow operatives, while others claim they don't even appear registered in the Code Module!"

He accidentally spit a bit of food in his excitement, disgusting the young cadets. "But again, these are all just my theories. I hope my input helps you in your report, miss Jhonson, your subject of the report is the most fascinating one!", he smiled to the young girl who had been eagerly taking notes beside him.

"Very much so Mr. Numbuh 101, sir!" she saluted while the rest of the kids resumed their eating.

Matt smiled largely at her, "my pleasure! I have more interesting materials related to Sector Alpha back at the Kids Next Door Seriously Cool Museum of Artifacts and Stuff, if you still need more data".

She nodded with a big grin and standing up she excused herself and went to chat with other fellow cadets.

Numbuh 101 looked over his shoulder and saw Numbuh 60 and 86 chatting and eating together on a different table.

"She's the Supreme Leader now, Numbuh 60. You can't just challenge her believes like that" an uncharastically calmed Numbuh 86 said while munching over a chocolate muffin.

"I didn't mean to challenge her!" Patton defended while taking a spoon of his Sunday ice-cream, "I just think she shouldn't have sold a sketchy story like that as a supposed sightseeing of the 'Sector Alpha', you know?" he said angrily.

Numbuh 86 arched a questioning eyebrow at him, "you don't think she fabricated the story, do you?"

"No of course not! I just don't think it's wise to assume that what she saw was indeed 'Sector Alpha' in full flesh, you know? It could have been any other team that was close to their position that night." He angrily tapped the table with his spoon.

"Ooooh are you guys talking about that mysterious last-minute rescue Sector V had about 4 years ago? Or was it 5 years ago? By the way Numbuh 60 may I say that I just adore this year's group of cadets? I have never seen such a fine group of younglings interested so much in KND history lore" Numbuh 101 interrupted as per usual and sat down on their table without an invitation.

Numbuh 60 and 86 didn't even seem surprised though, as most people were already used to Matt's hyperactive fanboy-ish antics and the complete lack of privacy awareness.

"Actually, we were talking about how useless is to keep fueling young cadets believes on kiddy fantastical KND fairytales…" Patton said sarcastically with a mocking smirk.

"Oh" Numbuh 101 managed to say awkwardly, "well technically speaking, the right definition is unfounded-historical-events rather than 'fairy tales', my pre-teen friend" Matt smiled innocently at him.

"Well, in my opinion, they're fairy tales until proven otherwise" Patton took another spoon of his ice-cream with a confident grin.

"That's fair enough" Matt agreed, "you used to say the same thing about the legend of Numbuh Zero if I recall correctly and look what it turned it out to be!"

Numbuh 60 looked caught off guard for a split second and Numbuh 86 couldn't help but giggle at the irony.

"That-that's different!"

"Why?"

"Because, Numbuh Zero is a modern legend of this era" Patton defended, "it had better chances to be real since it happened so very close to our time compared to a story that supposedly happened centuries ago" he rested his case.

Numbuh 86 glanced back at Matt who seemed to consider it for a second, "well I suppose you're right, we did have actual pieces of evidence of Numbuh Zero's doings, much more tangible ones compared to some old drawings of Sector Alpha from the 13th century".

Numbuh 60 half smiled in contempt.

"Still!" Matt suddenly said much louder, "My fan theory about Numbuh 1 being related to Numbuh Zero was right all along!" there it was, the fanboy couldn't be contained anymore. "And I was also right about the whereabouts of the missing Sector Z, and about Father, and Grandfather and I even had my own suspicions about the failed TREATY! All those unfounded-historical-events turned out to be real".

He elbowed Numbuh 86 excitedly. "My fan theories have been so on fire recently! Would you like to hear a few other ones I have?".

"Matt please-"

"No I'm serious, you might even like this one since it involves our ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 362!"

Fanny slightly glared at him, "oi, you better watch your tongue" and Numbuh 60 couldn't help himself to also glare at him.

"Nothing weird, it's actually super cool!" he hunched a bit and slightly cupped his cheek as if he was going to whisper to them a secret, "I think… she was part of the very super secret modern version of Sector Alpha" he lowly said just to the two of them.

"What?" the other two said in unison.

"Think about it for a second" he continued to whisper, "you joined KND with her at the same time since you three were recruited together when you were in kindergarten, right? You three graduated together from the Cadets-Next-Door Academy, and yet, she was the only one who immediately got assigned to solo missions after it, while you two were assigned to normal sector teams" he said.

"So what?" Fanny cut in, "Rachel was an extraordinary operative since her first days, better than us" Patton nodded in agreement with her "but the fact that she got assigned to solo missions instead of being assigned to a sector is nothing odd. Other operatives, not as good as her mind you, have been also assigned to those kinds of special missions before"

"Actually" Matt bit her lower lip even more excitedly, "there aren't many operatives assigned to solo missions, in fact, there are very few. According to official records, aside from Numbuh 362 only two other operatives had been assigned on top-ranked solo missions like she: ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 274 and Numbuh 9".

Numbuh 86 and Numbuh 60 looked at each other confused.

"But Numbuh 9 had been part of Sector V before he willingly decided to go on a solo mission to find the source of the Teen's Chicken Pox" Numbuh 60 argued.

"True, but he barely had spent six months in Sector V before that moment, if I recall".

"So?"

"So! It seems to me the Teen's Chicken Pox mission was a façade all along"

"Why in the world would that be a facade?!" Patton raised his voice slightly feeling outraged by the ridiculous notion of such an important mission to be a fabricated stunt.

"Numbuh 9 was the most honorable operative we have ever had, incapable of breaking anyone's trust, brutally honest-"

"Of course he was! I would never dare to doubt his well-known code of honor! But you have to remember he was also extremely good at keeping secrets and we all know hiding sensitive information is not the same as to be a liar".

Numbuh 86 thought that for a moment, "I…I guess so-"

"Plus, don't you think it seems a little odd that he spent what, 4 years on that solo mission and never managed to complete it? He was one of the best there was and yet it was our current Supreme Leader who ended up finding the source in the end, months after Numbuh 9 was decommissioned" Numbuh 101 arched a suspicious eyebrow.

"But Numbuh 5 is an excellent operative, probably the best of Sector V" Numbuh 86 argued again although with a tone of doubt in her voice.

"Yes but, with all due respect to her rank, would you say she's better than Numbuh 9?" the question took them off guard.

"I…" Numbuh, 86 looked around her as if checking if they were being watched, "I wouldn't dare to doubt her skills-"

"Come on Fanny, you know the answer. Abby is good with no doubt, but even you have to admit that she's not better than Maurice was" Patton sourly admitted.

"All right, but what does that have to do with anything?" Numbuh 86 stubbornly questioned.

"My point is, Numbuh 9 was indeed very capable of completing that mission and to have his place in history as the operative who found it but somehow he never accomplished it. Why? Because, in my opinion, that's not what he did in those last 4 years. My theory is that Maurice was asked to leave Sector V to join this secret team, let's call it Sector Alpha just for the hell of it, and the Global Command used the sudden rise of the Teenagers' Chicken Pox crisis for cover!" Numbuh 101 hit the table with both fists in excitement, "it's brilliant!"

"No, it's ridiculous! Numbuh 100 wouldn't have allowed something like that to happen since Sector V was in such a delicate state after the forced decommissions of Numbuhs 8A and 8B, and later with the brutal betrayal of their leader Numbuh 11" Numbuh 86 remembered him.

"Of course he would! Numbuh 100 always championed the idea of the ultimate sacrifice for the well being of the Kids-Next-Door and the fight against global adult tyranny regardless of the stakes. Numbuh 100 had to be a key actor in assembling the team! I think he even personally trained them! That's why he assigned Numbuh 274 and 362 to succeed him, to ensure Sector Alpha had control over the entire organization just as the original team did back in the time of 1st Era"

Numbuh 86 and 60 suddenly stood up with angry frowns and started to pick up their trays, "I think we've heard enough of your ridiculous fan theories for a whole life" Fanny said annoyed.

"Oh come on, you have to admit that my theories at least make sense in some levels!" Numbuh 101 said with hurt in his eyes.

"Sure, and the next thing you're going tell us is how Numbuh 274 never really betrayed us and almost launched the KND Moon Base to the sun because it was all a GENIOUS fabricated stunt to infiltrate the Teen Ninjas all along because, you know, that's what Sector Alpha would do" Numbuh 60 said sarcastically.

Numbuh 101 raised his finger to argue back but froze with his mouth wide open, "Oooooh…" he considered the possibility with his thumb on his chin, "OH! I never thought of THAT!-I should write that down on my notebook" and he swiftly took a small leather notebook from his lab coat pockets and began to eagerly write.

"You're impossible! Do me a favor and keep your ridiculous fan theories and fairytales away from my cadets, Matt" and with that Numbuh 60 turned over his heels and began to angrily march away. Fanny shook her head in resignation and followed him too.

Numbuh 101 raised his eyes and noticed with disappointment that he was once again alone in the table. He sighed, "I wish people would give more credit to my reasonings…I was right about Numbuh Zero and Sector Z after all".

He peeked down at his notes with a sad frown and closed the notebook.

/

**[A few years back on Maurice's 13** **th** **birthday]**

The moment he had sat down on the chair and Numbuh 86 had closed the door shut, loud electrical and mechanic noises began to blast around him. All his senses had been heightened as he braced himself for whatever it was supposed to happen on this dreadful birthday.

But to his surprise, nothing in fact was happening. Just a bunch of blaring noises playing along with what he guessed were recorded pieces of himself screaming at the top of his lungs.

"What it the world is going on?" he stared confusedly into the darkness of the Decommissioning Chamber.

A drain plunger came forward his face and halted a few inches away from his eyes. A small tv screen turned on inside of it and Maurice silently stared at it.

A typing bar began to blink for a moment as the noises around him continued.

[Happy birthday Maurice Williems. You have successfully completed your obligations as operative Numbuh 9] he read the message on the screen.

"wait-computermabob?" he arched an eyebrow quizzically at the always mysterious sentient persona of the KND SuperComputermabob.

[From this day on, you will never be regarded again as Numbuh 9 and you will no longer be part of the Kids-Next-Door]

Maurice gulped and lowered his head somberly.

[However] he suddenly read.

[Due to your high-ranked position, the Directive requires you to remain operative even after today]

"What?!"

[ **Operation A.L.P.H.A.**  must now be resumed urgently]

Operation A.L.P.H.A.

He remembered…the most classified and high-ranked secret mission…the last mission he had with-

Maurice' shock disappeared and was soon replaced by something he had purposely buried and forgotten deep inside of him, something probably none in KND thought capable of him to feel: painful and nostalgic rage. He clenched his teeth and glared angrily at the screen.

"You gotta be kidding me! The KND Global Command canceled Operation A.L.P.H.A. the day Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 was decommissioned and ordered  **MY secto** r,  **MY team** , to be disbanded and all of us had to be reassigned to solo missions FOR YEARS!" he hissed thou what he really wanted was to growl at the Supercomputermabob.

"You took away  **my FRIENDS** -"

[It's not the KND Global Command who is requiring for the mission to be completed]

Maurice paused, once again feeling confused.

"What-then who is giving the order?"

[That is classified information]

Now the alarms went off his head. Maurice had known for a very long time that in KND not everything was as crystal clear as it seemed sometimes and that some secrets were so big and risky to kept that mayor stakes had to be taken.

He knew this because he was an example of the many kept secrets the organization had, and it was exactly because of this he always imagined there couldn't be any big secret capable of surprising him anymore.

Clearly, he had been wrong.

"If this order doesn't come from the KND Global Command and, apparently, I can't either be told who is giving it then how I'm a supposed to know this is not something coming from a very skillful enemy who perhaps has hacked our system and wants to use me?" his body tensed as he looked suspiciously around him and went over a quick plan to escape the room and warn the others about this apparent hacking in the SupercomputerMabob.

The typing bar blinked silently for a few seconds without showing any new messages.

He sat straight, planted both feet firmly and was about to give a sprint towards the door when the computer began to write again.

[We know you from a very long time Maurice, even from way before you and the others joined KND and we know how crucial it is your role in the upcoming war]

That froze him. The words 'others' and 'war' resonated in his mind with dreadful familiarity.

[Your team is needed now more than ever not for the sake of KND but of the entire planet Earth]

His eyes grew wide with hope, "the-the team? The whole team you mean?"

[Affirmative]

Maurice felt his heart skip a beat and began to breathe anxiously.

[Two of your teammates who are currently out of the system have already accepted to resume Operation A.L.P.H.A and have made significant progress]

It didn't take him long to figure out who these two teammates were. He half smiled and shook his head with comical resignation, "Those two…I knew everything was a façade all along – I'm so kicking their butts when I see them"

The smile then disappeared when a somber reminder came to him.

"Aren't we too old for this though? Are we still even worth enough to finish the mission regardless of our age?" he whispered with uncertainty.

The computer's response silenced his doubts forever.

[If Alpha considers you worth it then you certainly are]

He smiled fondly for a second with a slight blush on his cheeks and took a timid interest on his boots.

He then frowned with a question on his mind, "will the other two who are still inside KND join us then?"

[Do you accept to resume Operation A.L.P.H.A?]

Maurice wasn't remotely surprised his question wasn't answered and cheekily smiled.

"Of course!" he said with conviction.

[Confirming]

[Maurice Williems, from this day on you shall never again be addressed with the codename identification Numbuh 9. Mission briefs will from now on be sent to you under your official identification]

"Good, I don't think I ever got used to 'Numbuh 9' anyway"

[You must keep your identity and mission a secret even to fellow active KND operatives. For security measures]

He arched an eyebrow quizzically and then put two and two together as he noticed again all the noises the machine was making, "oh so I have to pretend I really got decommissioned?"

[Affirmative. This will also help you with a side mission you and the others are also required to help with. New plans compel for your team to infiltrate the teen's forces and secure new powerful allies for the upcoming war]

This shocked him as the new plan spoke volumes about a terrifying truth, "so Numbuh 100 was right…KND is really not prepared for this war…"

[Affirmative]

He swallowed heavily and worried about the many young operatives inside KND who were still blissfully unaware of everything. He especially thought about Numbuh 5 and Sector V, who were perhaps the only team capable enough to give a good fight.

But not even them were ready for something of this magnitude.

[Upon leaving the chamber you must say the following coded phrase: "Like dude, does anyone know where a guy can get some chips and salsa in this dump?" in order to fully confirm your acceptance of the mission]

"WHAT-oh that is so lame computer, come on! Can you come up with something else that doesn't make me look so…brainless?"

[Negative]

He facepalmed with embarrassment. 'What a majestic heroic way to go' he thought.

[Be thankful you're at least you're not launching the Moon Base to the Sun]

The memory made him snort, "guess you're right".

/

 

**[McClintock High School – 1 year later]**

 

A year later that day Maurice had found out that much like KND, teenagers also had their own functional organization with a established order and sets of rules. Many believe the current teenager form of "government" was designed after the event that was known as the Great Junior High Rebellion of 1999.

The teenagers have a hierarchical form of government, with roles ranked according to levels of importance while respecting the three main corners of the popularity pyramid: academics, sports and the arts.

Right at the top of the pyramid are the Prom King and Queen and together they rule and command over all the ranks under them.

Next to them comes what is known as  **the 4 General-Captains: The Football Captain, the Soccer Captain, the Basketball Captain and the Volley Ball Captain**. These 4 figures are the most important (and popular of course) personalities after the Prom Rulers, as their power not only assures the order over all the rest of the athletic factions but also are said to be pivotal in influencing the decision in the election of the Prom Kings and Queens. These very honored high-ranked positions had been granted to these four sports in particular after being the decisive key powerhouses that allowed teens to obtain their independence in the final battle of the Great Junior High Rebellion of 1999. Therefore, they're acknowledged with the highest form of respect and admiration.

After the 4 General-Captains come the Cheerleader Squad and the Teen Ninjas' Lieutenant-Captains, who are in charge of enforcing order and control over the non-combatant teen population. There was a time when the position of the Class President was ranked above these two titles, but the entitlement eventually became downranked and it's nowadays considered a mere powerless figurehead. The remaining sport divisions and social clubs battalions form the rest of the lower middle half of the pyramid and are directly overseen by the General-Captains.

Maurice had self-taught himself all this before his very first day in high school, in order to effectively blend in without stirring too much attention. Naturally skilled in basketball, he joined the team in his first year and by his second year he successfully achieved the main position with the full support of not only the basketball battalion but also from all the other sport divisions.

The position though came with its own perks however, and one of them was to keep peace and order among the sport lieutenants and colonels and that wasn't exactly a simple job.

"Look Maurice, you're a nice guy, probably the nicest guy in the school, I know that. All I'm asking is for a little-tiny-bit of help with telling me WHERE THE HELL IN THE WORLD IS THAT GOOD-FOR-NOTHING ANTONIO BANDERAS?!"

Maurice rubbed his temples exasperated as he listened to the complaints of the angry red-haired girl that was tapping her soccer shoes impatiently in front of him. It's been a very long first day of school and tryouts for all the sport teams and divisions had taken place in the indoor basketball court.

"What did Ace do now?" he had to ask although by protocol, but he already knew the answer.

The red-haired girl was fuming, "how about NOT showing up to his own team's tryouts and NOT appointing anybody to fill in for him?! Do you think I like having our Queen's ninjas questioning me about his whereabouts!? That's not supposed to be my job!"

Antonio Sebastian Banderas, much commonly known as  **"Ace, the kid"** , was **the Soccer General Captain**. He was a pretty mysterious fella with a strange fascination for anything related to aviation and computers, desired by every girl in the school and considered a hero among the nerd and geek groups as he had always defended them from the most vicious bullies of all time. Oddly enough, only few people really knew him well deep down.

And as a fellow General Captain and old time friend, Maurice was one of them.

"Listen Flare-" he sat down on a bench while piling the many enrollment forms he had received.

"Please don't call me that…"

He sighed deeply, "Right, sorry about that…" Maurice apologized as his eyes returned to the glaring girl in front of him, "Pepper Ann" he promptly corrected "Ace told me yesterday he had a dentist appointment this afternoon. He probably forgot to tell you but I was well aware of it" he began to explain.

The girl standing furiously in front of him was Pepper Ann Pearson, colonel-captain of the Girls Soccer Team, one of the many sports battalions that were under the command of the 4 General Captains. She was an 8th-grade student soccer player superstar transferred from Hazelnut Middle School, with a slender physic and long curly auburn hair combed in a low ponytail with a blue scrunchie. She was known for being very cynical, unpredictable and quite quirky, but was also known for being bold, daring and different, never afraid to take a stand for what she believed was right.

Some people liked to call her "Flare" due to her very fiery personality but apparently she wasn't exactly fun of the nickname.

"Well, then WHY couldn't he just give ANYONE a heads-up! Why do I have to, ONCE AGAIN, cover his butt and not only supervise the girls tryouts but also the main team's? Why-"

"Pepper Ann…I know you're upset and I get it" Maurice looked at her tiredly while scratching the back of his dreadlocks in embarrassment, "I've known Ace for a very long time and I can assure you he didn't mean it not to tell you, ok? He probably just forgot to send you a text message to inform you and I apologize on his behalf".

Pepper Ann arched a worried eyebrow at him, "usually when you apologize so solemnly, it means bad news" her assertive deduction surprised him. "You're down on two General Captains on Tryouts day" she lost her defiant stance and looked at him sympathetically.

He sighed and began to arrange the filled enrollment forms distractedly, trying not to show how much the situation actually worried him. " **Chad** , I mean,  **the Football General Captain**  will be back for next season. Chuck is leading the team in the meantime as per Cree-I mean- her majesty's request but since he's only a Colonel- Captain he still has to report to Ace, Cissy and me and well…Ace is indisposed and Cissy"

"Is being her usual very useful self?" she said with sarcasm.

Maurice chuckled lowly and looked up at her. His puppy eyes were a powerful thing.

"All right, all right! I get it! Don't give me that look, geez!" she waved her hands and chuckled, "I'll help ya but you owe me big time Willems! And I mean, royal level debt" she warned him and reached out to pick the papers of all the Soccer Divisions.

He beamed at her, "see I knew you were cool Pepper Ann, no wonder the swim team's lieutenant likes you so much" he casually teased upon handing the papers to her.

She blushed instantly, "he-wait, what do you mean-"

"Willems! Do you have more of those enrollment forms?"

Both Pepper Ann and Maurice turned to see the  **Volleyball General Captain** , Cissy Roney approaching his bench. She was tall and pretty, with very light pixy cut short hair, plump red lips and the body of a supermodel. She was popular in the school for her looks and trendy fashion sense but was also known for being a bit shallow and a total airhead. Truth to be told, she was one of the 4 General Captains only because none of the other girls in the team dared to willingly take it and Cissy had been figuratively 'thrown' into the position.

Maurice lowered his eyebrows boringly at her, "what happened to the ones I just gave you?".

"I…may have spilled a bit of my nail polish on them," she said while munching her bubble gum, "I'm seriously this close to quitting the team. I can't keep getting my nails ruined every single time we have to play!" she whined and Pepper Ann rolled her eyes largely.

Maurice sighed for the 10th time that day and began to scramble among the large pile of papers on his legs. "Such a tragedy if that ever happens," he said sarcastically and the soccer lieutenant captain had to cover her mouth so Cissy wouldn't hear her chuckle.

But the tall blond girl didn't even register Maurice's joke, "well I'm very tempted these days, being a General Captain is hard and volleyball is ruining my promising modeling career!" she continued to complain while Maurice kept looking thru the many papers without really listening to her.

"Maybe I can convince this new recruit to take my position so I can leave this dreadful situation. She's not as pretty as I am but at least seems to be athletic enough to handle it". She half turned to point at the new recruit who was waiting at the benches across from them.

"Uhm I don't know, she seems a bit young to be up for the General Captain position, don't you think Maurice?" he heard Pepper Ann mention.

He raised his eyes from the papers and looked uninterestingly where both girls were currently looking at. His eyes went wide in seconds and then stoop up harshly with a loud gasp, startling both girls and letting all the papers fall to the floor.

"What the-Maurice! The papers!"

"What is wrong with you now?"

"Rachel?"

Cissy and Pepper Ann blinked confusedly at him.

"You know the new girl?"

Maurice was stunned for a second but then shook his head violently to clear off the stupor and reboot his brain. He looked then at the confused girls and quickly came up with a cover-up.

"She's Ace's neighbor. I've seen her a few times whenever I've been invited over his place-listen" he kneeled to pick up the fallen papers and clumsily gave a few to Pepper Ann and another pile to Cissy.

"We don't have any more blank enrollment forms so I'll go to the library and handle this situation personally. You two stay here and cover up for me in the meantime" he ordered, the words came out so fast that by the time they had realized what had happened, the captain was already gone.

"Wait!-Oh you owe me big time for this Maurice!" he heard Pepper Ann shout at him.

Maurice marched swiftly, every step in sync with the rhythm of his heart's beats. Rachel Mckenzie was here, the ex-Supreme Leader of KND had turned 13 last summer and was now starting her freshman year at McClintock High School, just like he did a year ago. 'Stupid Maurice! Why don't you pay more attention to your friends' birthdays?!' he mentally reprimanded himself. He had been expecting this day since his 13th birthday and yet it had completely caught him off guard.

Two girls dressed in the volleyball team's uniform froze in surprise upon seeing him approach.

"General Captain Maurice, sir!" they both exclaimed while standing up and making a military greeting.

The blond girl in front of them turned to see him and her hazelnut eyes finally met his. Maurice swallowed hard and felt his cheeks blush with nervousness as he noticed how much she had changed since the last time he last saw her. She had grown a few inches taller but was still shorter in comparison to him. Her hair seemed more golden colored, still styled in the same way he was familiar with and her skin was brighter and somehow rosier. The Supreme Leader uniform was gone and instead she now was wearing a long-sleeved orange dress with a brown leather belt, blue jeans and cowboy boots.

Honestly, she didn't look much different but somehow she made him feel different.

'Why are you nervous? Come on! Is Rachel! You've known her from Cadets-Next-Door days!' he mentally reprimanded himself.

"Hi! I'm  **Maurice Williems** ,  **Basketball General Captain** " he sounded robotic and stiff.

He saw Rachel's eyes gleam but her expression was unreadable, "hi? Uhm  **I'm Rachel Mackenzie** , first-year student" her small and timid respond shocked him.

That didn't sound like Rachel at all.

Oh no…

The other volleyball girls looked back and forth between the General Captain and the new girl as a minute of awkward silence took over them.

"Nice to meet you" he couldn't help himself sound disappointed. Was she pretending not to recognize him? Yes, that had to be. There was no way in the whole universe for her to not have been chosen just like him.

After all, they have fought together and were needed once again, right? That's what the Supercomputermabob had told him. This must be a façade, a stunt to deceive the other teens, he desperately hoped.

"So! You wanna join the volleyball team, right?" he suddenly yelled, startling Rachel and the other two teen girls.

'Damnit Maurice, get yourself together! You're making a fool of yourself as both a General Captain and also as an elite operative!'

"But I'm afraid we ran out of enrolling forms-"

Rachel frowned sadly, "oh no-"

"But it's fine!" he yelled again with a forced smile, "I just need to go to the library and ask Mrs. Sneed to print us more copies! Would you mind coming with me?" did that sound credibly enough? He hoped his last-minute-made-up plan didn't seem too odd, he just needed to find a place to talk to her alone before Cree or anyone else from the Teen Ninjas noticed her.

"Oh sure!" she smiled with relieve, "I thought for a second you were going to say to 'try next year' or something. Thank you!"

He smiled back at her, "no prob! Come on this way!"

They left the courtyard with everyone's astonished gaze following them behind.

/

"Here you have Maurice, hopefully these will be enough" Mrs. Carlotta Sneed smiled sweetly at the tall boy handing him more printed copies of the enrollment forms. She was the gentlest adult of the school, with a funny fondness over knitting and great mathematical skills. She used to teach home economics at Hazelnut Middle School but had been retired for a while now to have a much tranquil job as a librarian.

"Thank you Mrs. Sneed" he slightly bowed while picking the papers, "sorry for bothering you so much today".

"Oh it's always like this every beginning of a new school year honey, don't worry about it. But please tell me who is your new pretty lady friend?" she suddenly asked and both Maurice and Rachel blushed.

"I'm Rachel, I'm new in the school. Nice to meet you Mrs. Sneed" the blond girl timidly introduced herself.

"She's enrolling in the volleyball team" Maurice quickly said, sweating profusely.

"Oh well, isn't that nice? You look very athletic so hopefully you'll soon be joining cute Maurice here as another fellow General Captain, uhm?" she teased and Maurice panic as she winked at him.

"THANK YOU MRS. SNEED HAVE A NICE DAY!" he grabbed Rachel by the arm and gently began to rush them both out of the library.

Mrs. Sneed giggled and waved them goodbye with a teasing smile still on her lips, "good luck Maurice! Remember to always be a gentleman!" she shouted and other students snickered while the library's doors shut loud.

/

Maurice sighed, his cheeks still flushed with embarrassment, "so sorry about that, Mrs. Sneed is the nicest person I know but sometimes she can be too much like a 'mom'" he apologized and handed Rachel an enrollment form. They were in an empty hallway of the school, surrounded only by lockers and a very comfortable silence.

She smiled at him while shaking her head, "I'm so sorry you've to take all this trouble for a new girl like me. I mean, with you being one of the General Captains and all, I'm sure you must have much more important things to do" she took the paper and shoved her hand inside her purse looking for something to write with.

Maurice arched his eyebrows in surprise. So she already knew about the teens ranking system? That information was something not many freshmen were supposed to know on their very first day in high school.

Maybe this meant he was right and she had too skipped decommission like him!

But wait, they were alone now! Shouldn't she be more open with him and let him know she knew him? She was still acting completely unreadable and out of character.

Doesn't she know he was chosen too?

Oh…

Maybe she isn't sure he was chosen!

He mentally facepalmed. Of course she would be like this! She had been not only a KND Supreme Leader but also one of the best spies of the force! It was part of her training not to trust anything or anybody right out of the bat. Knowing her as well as he did, she probably wasn't even sure what happened in the Decommission Chamber had been 100% real.

But what if?...what if he was wrong? What if she had been indeed decommissioned and he was just running in circles hoping for nothing all this time?

Screw it! He shoved all his questions to the back of his brain and decided to go for it and figure it out once and for all.

He saw as Rachel took out a blue pen from a pencil case and used the locker next to them for support. As she began to write down all her info, Maurice quickly came up with a plan of action.

"Speaking of captain stuff, how has been your first day of school? Any bullies you would like to report to me? Dealing with them it's kinda my job, you know?" he said cockily.

The shadow of a small smirk appeared on her lips while she continued to fill the papers, "Report? Wow, the job is really that serious" she chuckled.

Maurice didn't miss the slightly offended tone of her words and his cocky smile grew, "of course it is. I mean, sure anyone can become a 'lieutenant captain' or a 'colonel captain' but not everybody can be General Captain, you get my drift?" he waved his eyebrows suggestively and deeply hated how he sounded like a total douche.

He saw her briefly look at him with a judging eyebrow raised, "well no offense but General Captain Cissy didn't seem anything special to me".

And she was right, "well Cissy is the only exception. Nobody in the volleyball team wanted the position so the team kinda sacrificed her and threw the responsibility on her?" he shrugged.

Her eyes went back to the enrollment form, "maybe I should give her a hand with that situation".

Now he was curious, "oh?  **Would you be interested in becoming a General Captain?** ".

Ah, there it was, her familiar confident bossy smirk. "I used to be good at leading large groups back in school and I'm good at volleyball. If nobody else wants the job then I have no problem on taking the 'issue' out of her hands" she casually said as she was almost done with the enrollment form.

Maurice shoved his hands in his jacket's pockets and decided to bring out the artillery. "So you think you can handle the pressure of being a General Captain?" he teased.

He noticed her burrow her frown very slightly in annoyance, "it can't be that hard".

"But it's very different from leading a bunch of little kids".

He must have strung a chord inside of her because he noticed the pressure on the pen increase and her writing was now a bit more aggressive, "teenagers were kids once, you know? Sure now we have to deal with things like popularity, dating, social protocols and what not. But deep down we're the same as we were before turning 13. I think I'm as good at leadership as I was when I was 10".

Maurice hated this, he really did, but he knew the only way to break thru her disguise was to play with her pride. "Ah see but you're wrong! You need to get better at leadership to be General Captain. Trust me, teens will eat you in a blink of an eye if you're not strong enough to resist the pressure…"

"Especially with girls" he dropped the bomb and mentally braced himself for the storm.

She stopped writing completely and fully turned towards him. In his mind he squealed when he saw her glare at him with one fist now on her hip and the other wrinkling the paper with contained anger.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" she hissed.

He carefully calculated his next move. She was now acting more like her true self so he really didn't need to push too hard to fully break her façade (plus, he knew better than to fully anger her).

"No offense but girls can be…difficult to handle. Even for an experienced leader as you say to already be and you're a girl so…". He took out his cellphone and began to type a message, pretending to act casually as if what he was saying was trivial.

"Maybe girls are just too much to handle for you!"

Oh no.

He raised his eyes from his cellphone and paled when he found her glare almost piercing through his skull, "you act like a nice guy but you're just another pretentious jerk like the rest of the boys in this school!".

She then shoved the enrollment paper on top of his phone, "you clearly don't know who am I! I'll show you how much I can kick butt as a General Captain!" she turned over her heels and began to walk away from him.

Maurice went into full panic mode. He hadn't meant to offend her like this really. "Rachel wait!" he sprinted after her.

"Just leave me alone you jerk!" she shouted without turning.

"Please wait, I'm so-"

She turned over her heels to look at him with utter fury, "Leave me alone,  **MO**!"

He stopped with his eyes big as plates.

"wha-what did you just called me?" he stuttered.

Rachel went wide-eyed too as her anger quickly was replaced with alarm. He had heard her said it loud and clear. The nickname only his closest friends knew very well.

Rachel shook her head and frowned at him, "never mind" she seemed disappointed.

She was about to turn around again when his next words shook her entire world.

" **Golden girl**  wait"

His words halted her march instantly. Maurice saw her standing still for a few seconds and then very slowly she began to turn around to look at him, her eyes brimming with shock as if not believing what she just heard him call her.

He smiled softly at her, his eyes glossy with so many emotions. Hesitantly he walked towards her and closed the distance between the two again, stopping just a step from her.

"Only my real friends call me Mo" he whispered to her.

Her hands went to her mouth and tears began to form in the corner of her eyes. He gave another step and grabbed by her shoulders softly, gently squeezing them in a way to reassure her everything was real.

"you didn't get-?" Maurice chocked before completing the sentence.

Shock disappeared from her face and a big smile curled on her lips, tears falling down her cheeks freely. She slightly shook her head and mutely said "no".

Maurice couldn't help as tears formed in his own eyes and began to laugh aloud.

"Oh thank Numbuh Zero!" he said and went in to fully hug her without second doubts.

"Mo!" she protested but still laughed with him, "put me down! You're going to ruin our cover!" she giggled in his arms with more tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid you don't get to boss me around anymore, ex-Supreme Leader, ma'am!" he laughed heartily and bear-hugged her again, earning a loud burst of laughter from her old friend.

She returned the hug fully and Maurice blushed as he felt her melt in his chest, "Oh Mo I'm so glad! I wasn't sure at first if you were-I'm so sorry I yelled at you! I would never yell at you!" she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

This felt…different.

"I'm sorry too!" He fondly stroked the back of her head, "I know I acted like a jerk and I was fully prepared for you to kill me for it" he joked.

The bell suddenly rang loudly and both sharply became very aware that soon the hallway was not going to be empty anymore.

"Shoot! We better get out of here before Cree and her croons find about you" he took her hand and both sprinted fully towards the fire emergency stairs.

/

The wind blew softly on the roof of the school and the sky was now tinted with orange and pink hues. Classes were officially done for the day but Rachel and Maurice had remained hidden from the rest of the world. She had spent a good hour retelling him everything that had happened the last few months until her birthday.

"And everybody was crying! Poor Fanny had to be dragged out of the auditorium while I stood there with the blankest expression I could muster- IT WAS AWFUL!" she was waving her hands exasperatedly.

"I know!" Maurice chuckled, sitting Indian-style on the top of the roof's water tank. "it was really hard for me too! What code phrase did they give you?"

She crossed her arms, her cheeks turned rosy as she remembered, "Like, does anybody know where I can get a good coffee around here?" she made snob-like gestures to complete the performance.

Maurice snorted, "well yours was way better than the one I got, that's for sure".

She suddenly frowned at him, "why didn't you tell me anything when I was still Supreme Leader?" she sat down next to him looking hurt.

He avoided her eyes and looked at the space between the two, "I really wanted to…regardless of the order that forbids it and all…but I just didn't want to risk it. I was afraid if I did then you and…you guys could have been compromised and the team never fully reunited" he admitted sourly.

Rachel smiled and looked down too, "I understand…"

But then he scratched the back of his neck with embarrassment, "well Numbuh 5 kinda knows about me tho…"

"WHAT?!"

"I didn't have much of an option!" he tried to defend himself, "Abby got so sad about my decommission that she almost quit being a KND operative while fighting against Cree on the Chicken Pox Island!"

Rachel's eyes went wide with realization, "oh so YOU were actually there!"

"Yeah and ended up helping her. She promised to keep the secret"

She wondered for a second, "you know…she actually seemed a bit too 'chill' during the day of my decommission. Do you think she suspected about me also getting chosen?"

He smirked, "probably. Abby is smart, she even read thru Chad's very over the top cover-up plan" he rolled his eyes largely while remembering his very-extra best friend.

Rachel's eye went wide with a new realization, "Chad…" she looked up to the orange and purple sky with wonder.

Maurice looked up too and saw few stars beginning to appear, "we met at that party the Delightful Children did in their mansion a year ago. We crashed on each other while trying to get out of the mansion. I almost punched his teeth out for all the trouble he caused you after almost launching the Moon Base to the sun"

Rachel looked back at him with shock but then giggled, "he has a life debt with me for that stupid stunt. When is he coming back?"

Maurice frowned with uncertainty, "I'm not sure…this part of the mission is the worst because we literally can't do anything while he's up there. We are asserting some teen forces in the meantime as the Supercomputermabob suggested-"

"That's another thing that has been bothered me since my birthday" Rachel said with a serious tone, "who exactly is giving us these orders? Operation A.L.P.H.A. was canceled by the Global Command years ago, but now the Supercomputermabob decides to rebel against that order? Why now? Why are we assigned to infiltrate and assert teen forces in the meantime? Why are the Teenagers now a key element? Are there any other operatives aside from our team also doing teen undercover missions? I'm telling you, I can't shake the feeling our system got hacked and somebody has been sabotaging the Decommission protocols".

"No, I don't think that's what's going on", Maurice quickly answered her, "You weren't the first ex-KND operative I investigated to see if it got decommissioned or not. After my birthday, every time I met someone I knew back in KND I went and tried to figure out if they were undercovered operatives like us".

Rachel leaned closer to him curious, "And? Who else is with us in this?"

Maurice smiled at her, "well, besides you and Chad, there's just one more person I know of" he smirked just when the wind suddenly changed and mysteriously became much more agitated.

Rachel was shocked with the sudden change of behavior the wind but somehow Maurice didn't seem bothered by it one bit. He stood up and signaled Rachel to jump out of the water tank and they both landed expertly on the school's rooftop as the wind got louder and stronger. Rachel covered her face with one hand and began to walk back towards the border with Maurice doing the same.

"What it's this?"

"I texted him before you snapped at me in the hallway. It took him some time to come so he probably was flying somewhere far away in the globe" Maurice chuckled just when the floor of the roof rumbled under their feet as if something heavy had just landed.

The wind then stooped completely and very slowly Rachel opened her eyes and noticed with confusion the roof was still empty. However, she could hear a faint humming electrical sound coming right in front of her and quickly deduced what was going on.

"No way!" she smiled with surprise and Maurice grinned largely as a new sound was heard, very similar to the one of an airplane door being opened.

A glowing rectangle appeared out of the thin air and began to grow and shape in the form of a door. They saw a figure approach and Rachel chuckled when a familiar face stepped out of the invisible aircraft.

It was a handsome teen boy slightly taller than Maurice, wearing a brown aviator jacket, dark blue jeans, black sunglasses with his caramel hair perfectly styled in a Mohawk.

The boy adjusted his sunglasses to see better and cackled, "oh-mi-gosh! it's Golden Girl indeed!" he said and sprinted towards them.

"ACE!" Rachel opened her arms wide open and allowed herself to be engulfed in another tight bear hug, "wow you had some serious growth spurt since the last time I saw you!"

Ace gave out a loud guffaw and looked at her, "well EXCUSE ME miss 'I'm too busy being a super-awesome KND Supreme Leader, kicking butts and taking names to have time to visit my handsome neighbor'!"

"Oh mi pobre corazón!" he put a hand over his heard and melodramatically pretended to be hurt.

Rachel punched him softly on the arm, "Shut your telenovela! You didn't even send me a happy birthday message!" she scolded him.

He scratched the back of his head with embarrassment, "in my defense, I didn't know if you were going to even remember me after all!"

Maurice arched an eyebrow at him, "what are you talking about, we both knew she was going to join us! You're just trying to excuse yourself!".

"…Mo, brother, you can be a nasty backstabber some times, ya know?"

"You're never going to change, are you?" Rachel crossed her arms cheekily.

Ace smirked suavely, "why should I when you love me just as I am?" he winked at her and got himself punched in the arm once again but much harder this time.

 

 

/

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

Chad narrowed his eyes and instinctively balled his fists to contain his obvious disdain as Numbuh Omega approached them.

He stopped a few feet away from them with a sinister smirk plastered on his dark alien features.

"You don't know how much I have been waiting to meet you two. I've heard so much about both of you" he said with finesse.

"The honor is ours, Supreme Emperor!" Numbuh 1 suddenly said with his head bowed while kneeling.

"Oh please rise, rise. Kneeling is so old fashioned after an entire millennium" the emperor signaled with his clawed hands and Nigel and Chad did so.

Numbuh Omega then came closer to Numbuh 1 and graciously extended one of his hands for him to shake. Nigel smiled nervously and very slowly he took the alien hand and shook it in a greeting manner.

Omega smiled knowingly, "Nigel Uno, aka Numbuh 1, former leader of Sector V. Son of the legendary Numbuh 0 and 999 and… Father's nephew?" he teased darkly.

Nigel swallowed heavily, embarrassed by the last part of his profile, "ye-yeah…that does sound like me I suppose, your grace".

Numbuh Omega released his hand and tucked both of his hands behind his back in a very formal military stance. "I always wanted to meet your parents, you know?" he smiled curiously at him.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, I actually considered to invite them to join GKND back when they were still operatives but I was advised to not choose any Earth-galactic-level-operatives just yet. Humans weren't ready still to know about us apparently" he shrugged.

Nigel glanced over where Numbuh Infinity, Numbuh 74.239 and Vine were currently standing "So…that means you've been around for some time I guess".

Omega let out a horselaugh, "oh more than you probably imagine, my friend. No offense but you don't seriously think Earth's KND was founded by mere humans, do you? You probably would have been overrun by adults way earlier if it wasn't for our intervention centuries ago".

Nigel frowned worriedly as Numbuh 9L sad feline face flashed in his mind, "thank you again for choosing us to be part of such a great endeavor, Supreme Emperor" he gave the alien a proud military salute.

Omega's eyes narrowed at him with interest and smirked, "I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll be capable to do in order to help your people, Numbuh 1".

The emperor then side glanced at the oddly silent teenager next to them.

"Chad Dickson" he grinned largely and walked towards the teen with calculated steps.

Nigel relaxed his military stance and noticed the intensity with how Chad was glaring at the Galactic Supreme Leader. He remembered how he had reacted to the news of Numbuh Omega was not only real but also still around and in charge of the Galactic KND and silently hoped for his senior comrade to not say something stupid.

"Aka ex-Numbuh 274, former Supreme Leader of Earth's KND who, allegedly, orchestrated a very elaborate plan to fake a betrayal in order to infiltrate the Teen Forces and help KND behind the curtains". Omega said with his eyes still narrowed and his hands still behind his back.

Numbuh 1 saw nervously how Chad remained silent, his eyes piercing Omega's alien skull.

Then, the teenager squared his shoulders and made a slight bow with his head. "Sir," he said very lowly in that monotonous tone he always used whenever he was in front of any alien operative. He straightened himself and raised his chin to look at the Emperor straight in the eyes in a very intimidating way.

But Numbuh Omega didn't seem bothered by it, "I was especially curious about meeting you" he grinned wickedly.

Chad didn't say a word so Omega continued speaking, "the teenager rebel who also busted Numbuh Infinity's cover so easily". The Emperor glanced over his shoulder towards the squirrel alien form of Infinity who coughed and seemed uncomfortable with the obvious call-out.

"And who also so very annoyingly insisted on being proven worthy to join our forces regardless of his…condition" Chad didn't miss the subtle tone of disgust.

"You both are certainly the most interesting humans I've met since the last time I was in this galaxy" Omega smiled like a fox as his voice slightly pitched with wicked fun.

He then looked at the room's large windows towards Earth's direction.

His brow furrowed a little, the blue planet mirroring on his eyes, "it took me some time to decide to return here…definitely not an easy decision considering how things ended rather tragic last time…"

Nigel thought he saw sadness flash in the Galactic Leader's eyes.

"Infinity has told me you're familiar with me and my sister' story yet I'm afraid the version you know has been horribly altered"

"Altered?" Chad said lowly with clenched teeth.

Numbuh Omega looked at the teen with unreadable eyes. "Unfairly altered…"

Every story has two sides.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N.:
> 
>  
> 
> My apologies for taking so long on updating the story. Hopefully, this very long chapter compensates it.
> 
>  
> 
> Comments and reviews are really appreciated!


	4. "I choose to grow up"

**Now loading :**

**Galactic-Kids-Next-Door mission**

**Operation:**   **A.L.P.H.A.**

**Story written by Cris Carvalho**

**Complementary art can be found in my social media accounts at KicaCris**

 

 

**Chapter 4:**

**"** **I choose to grow up"**

 

 

_When you're eternally young like me, time seems to go by in a different phase compared to those around you._

_Time affects your memory, as the longer you live, the most you will forget. I no longer can remember my home planet nor the faces of my parents. I know I come from the Andromeda Galaxy but I can't remember how it looked like. There are records that said my homeworld was destroyed long ago and the ship you're currently standing is the same ship we used to escape, stolen from a galactic space pirate I think._

_I'm not sure, my memory is really foggy now._

_I have met thousands of different creatures: mermaids from Aquarius Constellation, savage tribes from the Aries and Leo star systems, and even fire breathing dragon-like aliens from bigger stars than your Sun._

_Fascinating kids._

_We recruited them all, had so many adventures for so long just to inevitably see them grow up._

_I don't remember them anymore. I have lost count on the many worlds I have visited, all the battles and friends lost._

_However, there is this tiny piece of memory I seem to be unable to forget: the memory of my sister._

_Oh my dear sister Alpha…she was the brightest comet of the Andromeda Galaxy, a true princess and warrior. She was my light and I was her shadow, two faces of the same coin._

_I would follow her to end of the universe if she wished me to. She guided me and protected me when there were just the two of us._

_Only when I think of her is when some sparks of the past shine in my memory. I remember her laugh, light and sweet like bells. I remember her fierce bravery and unwavering confidence. She loved dancing and fencing, something she liked to combine in her fighting style. She liked to tell me stories about knights and princesses, pirates, fairies and savages. I would listen to all her stories and never get tired of them. I would always gather the others around her so they could too listen to her fantastical stories._

_I don't remember if I learned how to fly and fight from her or back when we lived at our home planet. But I do remember how much I loved to fly with her across the starry space. She always wanted to try teaching other lost kids to fly like us but they could never do it, not unless we give them some of our own power to do so of course, and yet they would only be able to do it for a brief moment._

_After losing our parents and home planet due to…that awful virus, she took as her heroic quest to rescue all lost children from all over the universe and to lead them to a place where together we could protect them all with our eternal power…a place where children could play whatever they wanted and eat all the candies and pizza they ever wanted, where they would always be free to be themselves, free from the hook of the adult threat…_

_That place…she liked to call it Neverland…_

_At first, we would just rescue other lost kids with the only ship we had. As time passed, the number of lost kids grew and we had to make more ships for all of them. By the time we reached the 1000 lost kids, my sister grew fed up with the universal adult tyranny and that's when we made the decision to no longer stand by and do nothing. We knew how to fight so we only needed to teach the others how to fight too._

_It also helped we happened to had the most brilliant kids with us, so that greatly increased our power. With their aid, we built the greatest galactic kids armada of the universe. We would go galaxy-by-galaxy, planet-by-planet, to any world that needed our help and end the suffering of billions of children._

_And then…we came to this galaxy, to your "Earth"._

_Something about your planet made my sister believe she had found our "Neverland"._

_We explored it far and wide until we finally found them…Earth's lost children, abandoned and forgotten by the adults who were too preoccupied with their war to even notice them._

_But these children…_

_Numbuh Omega quietly growled as he remembered._

_Those four …they caught the attention of my sister with their apparent courage and thirst for justice. I didn't see anything special in them, just four ordinary human kids like so many others we had met._

_But Alpha liked them…way too much._

_And they seemed to like her, way too much too._

_My sister would take them with her everywhere. She would sprinkle them with some of her power so they could too fly and follow us around. She would play hide and seek with them and then teach them how to fight. She liked to tell them stories of our adventures in space, tho, in the beginning, they didn't believe we were from another world. Humans had so little contact with other species outside their world after all, still being so primitive to have the capacity to explore outer space._

_Eventually, I got bored with Earth and told my sister I would leave to explore the other planets of the Milky Way. Alpha insisted to stay on Earth to ensure the establishment of another planetary KND colony so I let her be._

_Sometime after, Alpha came to my orbital base in Pluto to tell me she had had the most ridiculous idea ever: she had named those four her own team sector._

_I was shocked of course. Alpha and I were the supreme leaders of the whole GKND, so having team sectors was something we had never needed because we were the strongest. We were siblings, we naturally always teamed up together, so while other lesser operatives needed to band together with other 4 or 5 to increase their combat chances we were just strong the two of us._

_So imagine my shock when she told me their new numerical identifications. I was mad! And then she had the nerve to gave them weapons! And not ANY kind of weapons, but actual super-advanced weapons that were supposed to be only given to our very best and most loyal agents! Those weapons had belonged to the very first lost children we had found and who traveled with us before we even formed GKND! Their DNAs were engraved in those weapons! And she had the AUDACITY to re-program those weapons and gave them to the HUMANS? without even consulting me first?!_

_I was beyond mad!_

_That was our very first big argument. Alpha angrily returned to Earth and I remained in the outer ring of the Milky Way. Ironically, that was the same day I was informed by our scientist about the "aging virus" that was the main culprit of adulthood, but the fight made me forget to tell her._

_I should have told her…_

_She returned to me one day, with tears streaming down her eyes. Nothing in the universe was more heart wrecking than seeing my sister, the strongest and bravest there was, crying her soul out. Her human friends were aging and for the first time, she was truly affected by the realization. She should have known better than to get attached to them, especially because humans age way faster than any other species we had met._

_I calmed her down and told her about the virus. I tried to reassure her that we could find a cure and save her friends. That seemed to give her hope for a brief moment, so I asked her to go back to Earth, get the weapons and return to me again so we could travel to another galaxy and find the cure._

_So she returned to Earth...but she took longer to return to my side._

_I grew worried so I went to Earth to find her..._

_That dreadful day...the second-worst day of my life...she told me..._

**_"_ ** **_I want to stay and grow up with them!"_ **

_I really wish she hadn't said those awful words...I wish I could forget that day forever and convince myself that it never happened._

_She wanted to grow up? That's impossible for us! She had gone mad! She was delusional believing she was like them. I realized right then and there that somehow she had gotten infected with Earth's virus, and I needed to get her out of the planet ASAP._

_So I tried to reason with her! Your people think I challenged her authority when all I wanted was to save her!_

_But I couldn't! If it wasn't because of those four human and the Alpha Weapons!..._

_And so I left the Milky Way._

_"_ _I let her be as she requested and decided to look for the cure to save her in the meantime...I was sure she would eventually come to her senses and return to my side once the humans had long grown up and gone"_

_But then, sometime after…I received the crushing news of her fall during a war with the human adults…I couldn't believe the confirmed reports...my sister was gone?...why? How? Who had defeated her?_

_The questions plagued my mind for decades...so I ordered my spies to find me the answers._

_It took some time but one day, the truth came out like a poisonous sting._

_"_ _My beautiful sister...had been betrayed by her own Sector Alpha!"_

 **"** **LIAR!"**

/

Chad' sudden furious roar interrupted the emperor's narration, catching off guard everyone in the room. Numbuh 74.329, Infinity and Vine paled nervously while Nigel looked at the teenager beside him with utter shock.

For a minute, Numbuh Omega blinked silently in surprise at the angry teen in front of him but then his shock was soon replaced by outraged anger.

"What-what did you just called me?!"

"Sir!" Numbuh 1 quickly tried to save the situation, "Chad didn't mean to-"

"I said, LIAR!"

"Oh boy" Nigel slapped his bald face in resignation.

Omega glared dangerously at the teenager, his sharp teeth showing as he growled, "watch your tongue teenager, this is the only time I'll be warning you!"

"She wasn't sick! She made her choice and Sector Alpha supported her! Just because she didn't agree with you doesn't make her mad! And Sector Alpha was the most loyal to her! They fought by her side until the very end! It was her choice to send them to the Moon with the rest of the survivors so KND could carry on even without her! They would have never abandoned her! They-"

Nigel arched an eyebrow as Chad continued to rant. Why was he so worked up about Numbuh Omega's version? What was written in the Book of KND about Alpha was very vague and yet, Chad seemed to have read more thru the few lines that were written there. He remembered when he was still a cadet, the old Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 also liked to tell the story of Alpha and her sector to the young trainees, something Chad and later Rachel will too mimic when they both became Supreme Leaders.

Perhaps the story meant something more to those who become Supreme Leaders?

"Oh, so THAT'S the lie they sold you? Isn't it?!" the voice of the Supreme Emperor broke Nigel out of his train of thoughts.

The ex-Numbuh 274 was trembling with fury, his teeth so tight you could hear them crunch under so much pent up anger and his fists were balled and painfully red.

"You're just assuming the worst of them because you-"

"Alright smarty pants, then PLEASE explain to me what was this doing in space?!" the emperor snapped his fingers and suddenly the translucid hologram of a purple diamond appeared in front of Nigel and Chad, with something floating inside of it.

Chad went silent, his eyes big as plates as he looked at what was floating inside the purple diamond.

Nigel, however, titled his head and came a little closer to see the object better. It was a large black piece of metal similar to the hilt of a sword, almost as long as half of his arm, partially melted and rusted. A strange symbol engraved in red could be seen on the base of where a blade should have been.

"I think I have seen this symbol before," Numbuh 1 said lowly, his eyes never leaving the strange floating object.

"That-that is-" Chad was having now trouble to speak, "that can't be-"

"Oh? Do you recognize it, Chad?" Numbuh Omega smirked smugly, looking much calmer now. "You seem much more knowledgeable on the story of my sister than Numbuh 1 here".

Nigel flinched and blushed in embarrassment but still looked at Chad with curiosity.

The senior KND operative seemed lost, completely entranced with the semi-melted piece of metal that Numbuh Omega had made appear.

 **"The Delta Sword"**  he finally mumbled in disbelief.

"WHAT?!" Nigel turned his head sharply at the object again, "no way! Are you telling me this is the legendary elemental weapon capable of burning as hot as the Sun?!" he yelled while goggling at every single detail of what he thought was just a piece of space trash.

"Well, it USED to be," Numbuh Omega said sourly, walking towards the object with elegant steps. "my wise sister made sure the weapons were only meant to be used by the members of Sector Alpha, so without Numbuh Delta's DNA this melted thing you now see here is beyond possible repair. Such a shame, it was definitely one of my favorites" he said with calm resignation.

"Where did you find it?"

Omega and Nigel looked at Chad who now seemed way calmer although completely awestruck.

The emperor smirked smugly again, remembering their previous conversation topic, "my soldiers found it buried in one of the abandoned KND Orbital Shipyards near Mercury" he looked down at Nigel, shining with utter confidence.

Numbuh 1 looked up at him and then at Chad, who frowned confusedly at them, "it was in space all this time? Why?"

Numbuh Omega walked towards him and half embraced him with one arm, "I know, my teen friend, I made the same question myself. The version of the story you were told mentions my sister using the 5 Alpha Weapons to send her team and all KND survivors to the moon. But that version itself has 2 very telling flaws: the first one is this evidence of course, the Delta Sword, found buried under space trash when it should have been on Earth since that's where my sister fell in battle", the emperor explained.

"And the second fact is something that I personally know" his voice sounded annoyed, "my sister didn't need the other 4 weapons to send everyone to the moon. Her own weapon, the Alpha Rapier, was capable of doing so on its own although it would have probably drained her of all her energy…surely that must have been what caused her fall in battle".

The heavy arm of Numbuh Omega left Chad's shoulder as he continued to explain, "obviously I only have assumptions of what really happened, but the way the Delta Sword was buried in this orbital shipyard makes me believe it was hurriedly hidden as if in a desperate way to cover someone's guilt. The last time I saw Sector Alpha back then, they were all teenagers so it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up abandoning my sister…but Alpha's heart was pure and loyal so I know that nevertheless their betrayal she still chose to save them from the adults…they didn't deserve her" Omega whispered while patting the teen' shoulder in a strange encouraging manner to try to shake him off his stupor.

Chad was breathing heavily now, his pulse agitated and his frown burrowed deeper in confusion at the floating remains of the legendary sword in front of him.

"So…they regretted what they did to her and decided to rebuilt Earth's KND as a way to repaid her sacrifice?" Numbuh 1 asked with painful realization.

"Most likely" Numbuh Omega shrugged nonchalantly, "and they hid the weapons to cover up their remorse. But the fact they lied about what truly happened, selling themselves as these poor heroes who supposedly tried everything for her?!"

"I won't forgive them!" upon saying the words, a purple jolt of electricity came out of his body and shocked the purple holographic diamond with force.

Numbuh 1 jumped out of the way right before the hit, not understanding what just happened.

However, when the smoke cleared, they all saw with surprise the remains of the Delta Sword's hilt hadn't been really damaged.

Omega and Chad blinked with shock while Nigel, Numbuh 74.329, Infinity and Vine looked with their mouths wide open.

"Argh! My apologies, I let my emotions took the best of me" he said while rubbing his temples exasperatedly.

Numbuh Omega walked towards the diamond and made it float towards his hand. "The Delta Sword might not be usable anymore but somehow it's still pretty resistant nevertheless its current condition so, I have hopes it can still be saved. Hopefully, Gabe will find a way to overwrite the DNA lock it has so I can give it to a new Numbuh Delta, right Numbuh 74.329?"

Gabe shook himself out of his blow and gave a military salute with its leafy branches, "Yes my lord! We're working on it!"

"And once it is fully usable again, we'll be able to track the location of the rest of the weapons easily for you, sir!" Numbuh Infinity suddenly interjected nervously as if trying to gain his leader approval attention. "It would be my honor to find them for you!"

But he only got an annoyed glare from his emperor, "you better do, Numbuh Infinity. Especially since you failed me so pathetically in your last mission on Earth!" he treated with a low menacing voice, making the Squirrel flinch with fear.

Numbuh Omega snapped his fingers and made the Delta Sword teleport once again. He looked over to Chad whose eyes followed the holographic trace of the sword without missing a beat.

"Are you ok, ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 274?" Numbuh Omega asked him, with one of his brows raised in question, "I notice you have grown oddly quiet and less moody now"

Everyone in the room looked at him again with worry. Chad had already trespassed so many boundaries in such a brief meeting with the Galactic Emperor, regardless of the warnings Numbuh 74.329 had given them before so naturally everyone was at edge with his next reaction.

But the supposedly temperamental alien leader didn't seem as bothered as Numbuh 1 had expected. In fact, Nigel found the Galactic Emperor much more sympathetic than what they had made them believe at first. Understandably, the fall of his sister had deeply affected him, but he still seemed more level-headed than any average kid. Heck, he was way more collected than Chad, Rachel or even Numbuh 100, he thought.

Chad was definetly calmer now, his body language didn't seem tense anymore although the expression in his eyes told he still seemed troubled by the recent revelations.

"..Why did you bring me here?" he suddenly asked lowly and with a strange defeated tone.

Numbuh Infinity and 74.329 sighed in relief upon hearing his change of voice and tranquil smiles returned to their faces.

Numbuh Vine, however, looked with worry at the now smirking Galactic Emperor.

"Oh, I see where the question is coming from. Worry not, my teenager friend! I might have given the impression that I find teenagers dangerous, hateful and disgusting-well fine that is actually 100% true" Numbuh Omega quickly admitted with his hands raised apologetically, "But YOU are the only exception and I think Numbuh 1 here will agree with me, right my boy?"

Nigel smiled largely at the Galactic Emperor, "ye-yeah of course! Chad is the only teenager who is still fighting on our side despite his condition" he excitedly said with full admiration, completely dismissing the brief look of disapproval on Chad's eyes.

Numbuh Omega walked towards the center of the room again, "I want to be completely honest with you, Chad. I was NOT going to bring you aboard our endeavor in the beginning due to your current infected condition and well, you know? that awful traitor label you had" Numbuh Omega chuckled with fun, "I mean, you even used to be in our galactic top list of KND betrayers 'who-must-be-immediately-be-arrested-and-decommissioned-ASAP'" he remembered.

"But after the failed TREATY mission" he made a reproaching side glance at Numnbuh Infinity, "I obviously had to change plans".

Numbuh 1's eyebrows went up in surprise, "The TREATY? So GKND was really behind it all this time?"

Numbuh Omega gave out a loud chuckle, "Ha! Of course we were, boy! We've always intervened whenever there's the slight chance of the Teenagers and KND to come together in any form of alliance! Who do you think orchestrated the Great Junior High Rebellion of 1999? Spoilers: It wasn't really the teenagers!" he winked at him.

Nigel gaped while Chad's frown returned, "wait, what do you mean by that? I thought the whole idea of the TREATY came from GKND" Nigel questioned right away as he remembered what Chad told him that day before he had gotten taken by GKND.

Numbuh Infinity cleared his throat and bowed to Numbuh Omega for permission to speak. The emperor nodded, "well yes but we only decided to interfere when the rumors of a slight actual possible alliance started to resonate strongly among our spies"

"WHAT?!" Numbuh 1 shouted and Chad's eyebrows flew up to his head in surprise.

"Yes, apparently the ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 362 was considering meeting with the teenagers' leaders in secret to arrange a negotiation, something I consider high treason and unacceptable," Numbuh Omega said darkly.

Numbuh 1 shook his head in negation, "No! Rachel would have never done that! I know her! With all due respect sir, your spies must have been mistaken!"

Numbuh Omega frowned at him, "she was already a pre-teen by then, Numbuh 1, I'm sure you are familiar with the possibility of KND operatives having doubts of being decommissioned and doing the most out of character things to ensure they keep their memories" he reprimanded him.

Nigel looked at his feet not believing the possibility of Rachel betraying KND, "but…but she was the first operative who willingly choose to become Supreme Leader after Chad left…she was so loyal to KND…"

Omega looked down at him with empathic eyes, "I'm so sorry my boy…I know it's hard to discover your heroes true colors, believe me, I know of this first hand…"

Chad looked at Nigel with worry as he hopelessly saw Numbuh 1 spiral down on a dark train of thoughts.

"Maybe she had good intentions!" Chad defended, "maybe she just wanted to prevent another war with them! Teenagers do have reasons to also fight the adults, you know?"

Numbuh 1 looked at Chad, a bit of hope seemed to return to his eyes while Numbuh Infinity shook his head with resignation, "Oh Chad, you keep saying that after all this time? Seriously…"

"HA! Please! Teenagers only want to become adults, they don't have reasons to fight them at all" Omega dismissed the thought and then snapped his fingers once again, making a huge screen appear behind him.

Numbuh 1 and Chad saw the mug pictures of an 11-year-old Rachel and of The Steve appear in it.

"As I was saying, our original plan with the TREATY was to ensure Earth's KND didn't get lured again into allowing teenagers in their forces. The plan was to make an anonymous attack during the signing between the ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 362 and the Teenager's Prom King"

They then saw a holographic simulation of Numbuh 362 and The Steve signing and then being both blown away suddenly.

Chad growled while Numbuh 1 paled.

"The confusion would have made both sides blame the attack on each other, chaos would have followed suit escalating the current conflict even more and therefore eliminating any intention for any future desire to join forces ever again!" Numbuh Omega finished his explanation with a smug grin.

"But" Numbuh 1 looked with horror at the loop animation of Numbuh 362 and The Steve being blown away, "Rachel would have been a casualty" he whispered.

Numbuh Omega straightened himself in a formal military stance again, "considering her already harboring treacherous intentions, I believe the sacrifice was worth it and it would have even redeemed her"

Numbuh Vine looked with shame at Numbuh 1 and then noticed Chad once again trembling with fury.

Numbuh Omega rolled his eyes largely, "Don't give me that face Nigel. You humans are so easily emotional attached! Chad too voiced his concern about the plan to Numbuh Infinity many times"

Numbuh 1 looked up to Chad whose eyes were now unreadable under his blond bangs. Nigel didn't know what to think of any of this. Part of him was glad Chad had been against the original TREATY plan too, especially because for Rachel's protection…but the other part was sincerely angry and disappointed of the possibility of Rachel's intention of betraying the GKND rules.

"Regardless, it seems we wasted our time designing this plan as apparently SOMEONE underestimated the Teens leader's own double-crossing agenda!" Numbuh Omega stressed verbally and once again glared angrily at Numbuh Infinity.

Numbuh Infinity kneeled and bowed his head to the ground, "And I'm forever sorry about this, my lord. I should have listened to Chad's warning! I promise I would never fail you again-"

"That's right! You Chad tried to warn us about Steve's real intentions!" Omega cut it with now happy excitement, "that changed my mind completely about you! Your unwavering loyalty to not only to Earth's KND but also to us, the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door! You did so much for us regardless of being a full teenager! That day I saw where your loyalty was really standing so I told Infinity to bring you along with Nigel"

Chad looked at him with determination.

"You fought for us and you even accepted to be tested by our scientists in an effort to find the cure for this dreadful decease!" Omega seemed really moved, curling his fist with passion.

"And although the tests have proven to be futile so far, I still think you can be of great use for our cause. That's why I, Galactic Supreme Emperor Numbuh Omega, am personally assigning you, our first teenager operative, one of the highest rank galactic-operative-level missions ever!" He announced boisterously with his arms wide open

The Galactic Emperor then snapped his fingers again and the screen behind him changed. The shape of a pyramid appeared and at its top the mug pictures of The Steve and Cree Lincoln materialized, floating along with the labels "Teen Prom Rulers".

Numbuh 1 looked confusedly at the graphic but Chad immediately recognized it.

"Nigel boy, it's ok if you don't recognize this image, I'll gladly explain it for you: this here" he reached out one of his dark hands towards the pyramid, "it's the updated version of the Teenagers' modern hierarchical structure. It's been a titanic work to collect all this information ever since the Teen Ninjas were created but thankfully my spies have succeeded on finally gathering the most Intel possible!"

Nigel was in awe, "oh wow that would have been so useful to have when I was in Sector V!"

Omega giggled "For sure", the emperor grinned like a fox, "anyway, as you can see here at the top, the Prom Rulers are the two figures who command all the levels of the teen society! The Prom Queen commands the Teen Ninja Forces, who act as not only her personal spies but also ensure total obedience from the lower levels of the pyramid. She has developed quite an iron rule, becoming a feared figure among the teenager population. She's regarded completely different in comparison to him".

Numbuh Omega signaled the picture of The Steve, "The Prom King. He commands the Sports Army, which is actually the strongest power source of the teenagers' military forces but oddly enough they are rarely used in combat".

Numbuh Omega turned around to face Nigel and Chad again, the glow of the screen behind him gave him a gloomy appearance.

"It has become a top priority for the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door to eliminate Earth's Teenager Forces once and for all. Their technological power has increased way too much and has become even more dangerous ever since they joined forces with Father", he said darkly.

"I used to think that by taking the Prom Rulers out of the equation, it would be enough to weaken and ultimately destroy the teenager forces once and for all. But it seems that won't actually be enough to cause the permanent damage I was initially calculating!"

Numbuh 1 looked at him with shock, "how come?"

"Because strangely their power is co-dependent of the approval and influence of other figures that I haven't really realized their importance until I noticed their utter absence in the failed TREATY mission!"

Numbuh Omega snapped his fingers and Nigel was shocked to see the pictures of 4 well-known teenagers.

**"The 4 General Sports Captains"**

Numbuh 1 looked between the serious-faced Chad that was standing next to him and then at his picture in the screen, next to the ones of Rachel, Maurice and that mysterious kid he remembered had seen a few times with Numbuh 2.

"YOU are a Teen General?! And Rachel and Maurice too?!" he exclaimed in surprise while pointing a finger at Chad in complete disbelief.

Omega nodded, "This is all ex-Numbuh 11 doing obviously, Cree Lincoln, she has been recruiting decommissioned KND operatives to her forces ever since she rose to power. It's a clever strategy if I have to admit. Obviously, ex-Numbuh 9 and 362 don't have a clue of what they're doing 'cause they don't remember their time in KND anymore and therefore don't know they're working with the enemy. Such a sad thing…but still, apparently, both decommissioned operatives continue to prove their exceptionality and managed to raise among the Teenager Forces with ease so now they're regarded by GKND as highly dangerous"

Chad didn't say anything so Numbuh Omega spoke again.

"Oddly enough ex-Numbuh 274 here didn't mention anything about this in any of the interrogatories" the emperor raised a questioning brow to him and Nigel mimic him.

"It's just a symbolic position, Cree and Steve probably must have substituted me already," Chad said without much concern.

"Actually they can't do that. The intel we have says the election of the General Sports Captains is something very special. It must be decided among the teenagers and the rulers cannot interfere, completely contrary to the election of the Prom Rulers who actually depend on securing the approval of the Generals to be at least nominated".

Chad turned his eyes away from Numbuh Omega but Nigel already put two and two together.

"So technically, the ones who truly are in command are the General Captains?" Numbuh 1 asked.

"It seems so" Numbuh Omega smirked, "but they don't seem to be interested in doing so by looking at our teenager friend's face"

Chad sighed, "our job is  ** _to lead, defend and assert victory_** , not to rule. The Steve knows this and that's why he ordered the sport forces to stay put the day of the TREATY in case of an emergency, although Cree still took the Teen Ninjas with her".

"Right, right! Still, you and ex-Numbuh 9 along with the Soccer General and the previous Volley Ball General accepted The Steve and Cree's nomination to be re-elected as Prom Rulers last year, am I right?" Numbuh Omega pressed on.

Chad growled with annoyance at the awestruck face Numbuh 1 was making besides him, "it's just bureaucratic protocol, people are happy with the way they've been ruling so far-what does this have anything to do anyway?!" He protested, crossing his arms.

"What-YOU DON'T SEE IT?!" Nigel shouted at him, which made a vein pop on Chad's forehead. "Chad you could have done so much more damage from inside! You-you could have helped KND!"

"And I did help, remember?" He growled down at him.

"Yeah but come on! You just scratched the surface of the many possibilities! Heck, you could have dethroned Steve and Cree on your own!" Chad looked away.

"And he will do exactly that!" Numbuh Omega suddenly said with finality.

Chad looked at him in surprise, "what?"

"But you won't deal with Cree and Steve yet. We'll destroy the Teen Forces from inside-out, but we'll start with the other 3 General Captains" Numbuh Omega revealed, freezing both Nigel and Chad.

"I want you, Chad, to capture and bring me the other 3 General Captains".

"WHAT?!" Chad snapped angrily at him. "What do you want with them?! What are you going to do to them?!"

Numbuh 1 looked at Chad and then to the Emperor with worry.

Omega rolled his eyes, "does it really matter? They're teenagers, therefore traitors regardless of whether they were KND operatives or not! Maybe I'll keep them to experiment with the cure once we find it" he shrugged, "I just want to break the order that keeps them strong, that's all!"

"Wait! Sir, please reconsider it" Chad suddenly begged, "I know them, they're not bad teens, they aren't even interested in the conflict between KND and the Prom Rulers! They even have refused to answer to Cree's call to battle every time she had asked because they prefer to be neutral!"

Numbuh Omega glared deeply back at him, "I don't care" he said with finality, "you will bring them to me and it's an order, soldier!"

Chad growled and Numbuh 1 quickly step in front of him before he made any movement, "Chad it's alright! I know it sounds like an awful big sacrifice but it will be worth it! Think about it, Cree and Steve won't know what to do without you and them to guide their forces! Chaos will eat the teenagers from within and then KND with the help of GKND will end them!"

Chad couldn't believe him, "-are you listening to what you're saying, Nigel?! It's Mo and Rachel we're talking about! Do you want them to be treated like rat labs just as they did with me?!" He yelled at the boy.

"But Chad! You're alright, you said it yourself so they will be alright! This will end all the wars, not only with the teens but with the adults too! Earth won't ever need a planetary decommission and you will end becoming the greatest hero of all! Even greater than my own dad! You would save EVERYONE, my friends too who are still in KND!".

Chad was completely confused about his reasoning, "what does destroying the teenagers have anything to do with saving KND?! Nigel, you make no sense!"

"It's a mercifully chain reaction" they both heard Numbuh Omega said softly.

"We destroy the teenagers and then the adults who had been dependent on their assistance until this day. They will be weakened enough to succumb easily to our combined forces with Earth's KND. We'll be able to save the planet and make it the all-kid paradise my sister always wanted it to be..."

 ** _"_** ** _Neverland,"_**  he said darkly.

Numbuh 1 smiled and looked up at Chad with anticipation, feeling in his mind this was the right way to save his friends. He could see it clearly; a world free from Father and all those pesky villains Sector V had been fighting against for so long.

 **"** **NO!"**

Nigel's beautiful dream broke into pieces like glass upon hearing Chad's loud response.

Numbuh Omega's eye grew large with shock, making Numbuhs Infinity, 74.329 and Vine gasp loudly at his bold refusal.

"Let me say this as clear as possible for you, my Emperor:  **I-WONT-DO-IT!** " The teen said very slowly and loud, his eyes never leaving the furious glare of the most powerful alien KND operative of the universe.

"This is not what the Kids-Next-Door is about!  **This is NOT what Numbuh Alpha wanted**! I won't betray my friends, nor my planet! I won't go against what I truly believe is what it means to be in KND! I don't buy your lies, I know there is no virus to cure, you only want a world shaped to what you think is right no matter who gets in the way! I WON'T PLAY YOUR GAME!"

The silence that engulfed them after was overwhelming. Numbuh Infinity covered his mouth in shock while Numbuh 74.329's branches grasped his trunk head in stress and Numbuh Vine's glowing green eyes were round and big as plates.

Nigel stood beside the teen, completely frozen and wishing Chad hadn't spoken those words. Why didn't he want to cooperate? Why was this the last straw after everything he had done for KND, why was he backing out of the greatest intergalactic quest they have ever had the chance to help with!

Numbuh Omega began to slowly rise from the floor, floating as if the gravity wasn't affecting him.

" **You miserable scum!**  Here I am, giving you a chance to become the greatest hero of all the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door history despite your disgusting condition and your complete lack of manners and respect towards  **ME** , you, a mere pathetic human teenager,  **you DARE**  to defy my orders?!" He roared, his nebula looking hair moved like a furious flame and his eyes glowed angrily white with power.

But Chad stood firm and defiant in his stance, looking straight in the eye at the Supreme Galactic Emperor with not an ounce of fear.

"so be it" Omega suddenly said with a silky dangerous voice as his body glowed dark purple with power. He snapped his fingers once again and under Chad's feet, neon blue chains began to spring out, catching his neck, wrist, and ankles in seconds.

"No!" Both Infinity and Numbuh 74.329 shouted in unison as the teen tried to fight the chains until they were tightened enough to completely paralyze him.

Nigel watched him in horror, feeling utterly hopeless.

 _ **"I, the Supreme Galactic Emperor Numbuh Omega, charges you, ex-Numbuh 274 with high treason!"**_  Omega roared in multiple voices with sheer fury.

"My lord, please!" Numbuh Vine quickly floated towards Chad and stood in front him with her long vines intertwined in a pleading manner. "Please have mercy of him!"

Numbuh Omega was taken aback by her sudden change of demeanor, "what?! Why?! Have you lost your mind Numbuh Vine?"

Lizzie trembled but didn't move, " **he's just following Lady Alpha's dream** , please have mercy!"

"NO! He doesn't know anything about MY sister's dream! He's just a filthy teenager who has clearly made his loyalty clear to me! He wants to fight for the teenagers then he's our enemy!" He hollered, making her flinch with fear.

"I want him thrown in the darkest and coldest cell we have and get his brain empty of ANY information regarding the teenagers!" he ordered.

"But-but sir" Numbuh 74.239 stammered unsure, "we already got all the info there is in his brain…"

Omega gave him the darkest glare,  _"then throw him to the cells where our adult prisoners are and feed them with him!"_ he sinisterly said with overlapping voices again.

/

Numbuh Infinity and 74.329 escorted Chad out, leaving Numbuh 1, Vine and Omega alone in the room.

Nigel looked pensive at the door where the chained figure of Chad had just disappeared from his view, feeling completely sad and disappointed. Numbuh Vine had effectively managed to calm down the angered Emperor and the teen had been just sent to a cell instead of the terrible punishment Omega intended for him.

With his shoulders lowered in defeat he turned his head towards the large windows and looked at the planets of the Milky Way. His eyes soon found the blue and green glow of his home planet and his thoughts again drifted towards Sector V. His heartbeat was agitated with desperation, not knowing what to do now that Chad had refused to do what was perhaps the only chance they had of saving at least KND of getting infected by the deadly virus.

He felt a slight breeze above him and looking up the glass he saw the reflection of Numbuh Omega's floating figure.

"Are you sad, Nigel?" Numbuh Omega tilted his head curiously, looking much calmer than before.

But Numbuh 1 avoided answering him, "I didn't know you could fly, sir".

Numbuh Omega chuckled softly and skillfully floated down to stand on the floor again, "I can do a lot of things but I'm pretty sure they didn't write much about me on the Book of KND" he straightened himself and crossed his arms behind his back again in his usual military stance. "If you accept to work with me I could take you to fly anywhere you would like" he offered him sympathetically.

Nigel smiled but then returned his eyes towards where Earth was, "I just…I want to help my friends back on Earth…I'm sorry Chad didn't accept the mission, sir".

Numbuh Omega looked sadly at his reflection on the glass, "don't take it too personal Chad's betrayal, Numbuh 1. As I said before, your heroes will always inevitably disappoint you once they grow up. My sister learned that hard lesson with her own team sector after all" he whispered with his eyes lost in the vast starry space.

Lizzie, who had been floating silently behind the two all this time, looked at both with her glowing green eyes full of concern.

"What now? What could possibly be done to save Earth now? I can't just stay still and just wait for the day all my friends are taken by that nasty virus!" he looked at the tall emperor pleadingly, his eyes were glossy behind his visors.

Omega didn't turn to look at him, his eyes now fixated on Planet Earth, "I don't know my boy… I returned to this galaxy with hopes of honoring my sister's memory by making her dream come true but…seems a bit impossible now…"

Tears threatened to fall down Nigel's eyes as his mind flashed him with images of Abby, Hoagie, Kuki, and Wally all being dragged by the terrible hook of adulthood without him being able to do anything to stop it.

"well, there's one thing" Numbuh Omega suddenly said and Numbuh 1 raised his eyes to him in surprise.

Numbuh Omega side glanced at Numbuh Vine who shook her head with pleading glowing eyes, "but I don't know if you will like it, my friend"

Nigel looked at Lizzie and then at the emperor as realization hit him,  ** _"a planetary decommission?"_**  he murmured.

Numbuh Omega nodded silently at him, "it would certainly give us some time"

Nigel looked at Earth and then back at the galactic leader, "how exactly does it work?"

Omega looked at him with surprise, "they didn't tell you about it?" he asked and Nigel shook his head in response.

The young emperor rolled his eyes largely, "it figures much. Well Nigel, a planetary decommission is an extreme measure we only take when a planet is completely overrun by adults. My sister was deeply against it, so I established a law that strictly dictates that only a galactic level operative can request the planetary decommission of their own planet if they consider it lost" he began to explain.

"Yes, I understand that part, but what exactly means the measure?"

"Nigel-" Lizzie tried to cut in but...

"We freeze the planet and make all its adult inhabitants fall into a deep slumber" Numbuh Omega finally revealed with a monotonous tone.

Nigel was taken aback, "what?!"

"Put into simple human words for you to understand"

Numbuh 1 blinked rapidly, his brain not grasping the magnitude of the plan. "How? How do you do that?"

Numbuh Omega smirked at him, "with our tech of course, which is far more advanced than the currently available on Earth. We use a canon to abruptly change the planet's weather and make the temperatures decrease until a freezing point and another laser ray shot to the planet's atmosphere to make all adults fall sleep instantly. With the temperatures so low, their bodies and the planet are completely preserved in that frozen state".

Nigel was shocked, his mouth opening and closing nonstop, "wait so, you don't destroy the planets?!".

Numbuh Omega's eye grew large with shock and then he laughed loudly for a long minute.

"What?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA No! Of course not! What made you think that?" the emperor continued to laugh, his stomach hurting now.

"Oh you humans! Gods no, we don't blow up planets!  **We freeze them to isolate the virus** , silly. The idea is to have it awaken once we find the cure for the decease and so save everybody." Omega brushed off the laughing tears from his eyes.

Numbuh 1 felt like an idiot for having completely misunderstood the concept all along.

"My apologies sir!" his face was completely red as a tomato. He then looked at the glowing form of Earth again, "it certainly doesn't sound as bad as I imagined…"

Omega recomposed himself and cleared his throat, "still, it's a pretty extreme measure, my friend. There are no guarantees of you seeing your family ever again once it's done. I have had so many operatives who have aged before seeing their planets awaken…Your teammate, Numbuh 9L, had to make that difficult choice years ago"

The feline face of her cat-alien friend came to his mind. He now understood her better and so he felt his mind quickly switch gears with a newfound determination.

"But you didn't have me and my team!" Nigel suddenly said with purpose.

The emperor turned to look at him,  ** _"your team?"_**  Numbuh Omega repeated intrigued.

Nigel made a military salute to the emperor and elaborated, "I won't fail you like Chad! Please at least spare my team from the planetary decommission and allow them to join me so we can help you find the cure to the adulthood virus!"

 **"** **NIGEL WAIT!-"**  Lizzie was suddenly enclosed in a purple holographic diamond that silenced her from being heard.

"Are you sure, Nigel? Would you really make the greatest sacrifice for them?" Numbuh Omega cautiously asked him with his lilac pupils enlarged like a cat.

The glasses of Nigel's visors suddenly turned from yellow to a dark shade of red, hiding his eyes completely, "I would do  **anything**  to ensure the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door ultimate mission, my emperor!" he said in a new robotic tone just as a small red light began to flash on one of the glasses' sides.

A large grin curled on Numbuh Omega's lips and he then chuckled knowingly, "Excellent my boy. I knew I could count with you, Nigel" he said in a singing voice and turning around he began to walk away from him, "please make sure to inform your decision to Numbuh 74.329 and ask him to call for a general assemble ASAP"

Omega's dark chuckle echoed throughout the walls as Lizzie watched helplessly the form of his former love walk out of the door with not a mind of his own anymore.

/

"That should teach him!"

A deep alien voice said as he threw the heavily beaten body of Chad inside a dark cold cell. He groaned in pain laying flat on the floor with one of his eyes peeking open to see the neon green bars of his cell raise.

"I'm glad the emperor finally decided to put this teen in his place once and for all" another guard said in a screechy voice, "disgusting infected creature. Let's get out of here and have the medics disinfect us!"

The guards dusted their hands off and walked away until his steps were no longer heard.

Chad began to softly chuckle, his side hurting with every breath and yet he allowed himself to laugh loud and with fun.

"I can't believe  **it**  was here all this time…this has to be some kind of dumb luck or twisted fate…it certainly wasn't in my original plan…"

He managed to gather some strength to support himself on his elbows and smirking knowingly he glanced at the only window of his cell.

 **"** **I just need to get that sword now"**

/

**[6 days and 12 hours after - Present Day]**

"Oh come on,  _Tinker Bell_. Stop your protests already! You're being way too noisy today!" Numbuh Omega said in annoyance while floating carelessly along with the still encased form of Lizzie.

She kept banging angrily the holographic purple diamond and the emperor couldn't help himself but sigh in resignation.

"What's the matter with my operatives growing fond of humans! You weren't like this when Alpha was still around! You actually disliked them just as much as I do. I remember you were especially jealous of how much Alpha liked to give them all her attention to them" he giggled nostalgically.

"Remember when you almost had Delta shot out of the sky by one of Beta's electric arrow?" He snickered, "Alpha was so angry at you that she even got you temporally 'banished'" he knocked softly at the holographic surface of the purple diamond, making her even angrier.

"You used to be so much fun back then,  _Think_ ," he told her with a bored expression, "don't worry about Nigel, we just gave him a little extra brain encouragement thru his visors. It's not like the idea wasn't already in his brain, you know? We do this all the time, he's perfectly safe…I wish Infinity and Numbuh 74.329 had been more insisting on giving Chad his own pair though…" he grumbled.

Suddenly a soft electric bell was heard through the room's speakers, "your grace, you have a call from galactic-level-operative Numbuh 74.329. Would you like to answer?"

Numbuh Omega smiled knowingly and floated again towards the large windows of the GKND Command Bridge, looking at Earth from the distance.

"That was fast. Yes, link me computer" he responded gracefully.

A floating screen with the tree-like face of Numbuh 74.329 appeared, "Galactic-Kids-Next-Door rules" he saluted.

"I'm assuming Numbuh 1 has informed you about his decision, right Gabe?" Numbuh Omega quickly responded, going straight to the point.

Gabe cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes, your grace-"

"May I congratulate you, Numbuh 74.329. This new versions of the GKND visors seem to be working way better than in your previous tests"

Numbuh 74.329 smiled but his frown was burrowed in concern, "Why thank you, my emperor…it certainly helped that he has been using them since he arrived a year ago" he said with uncertainty.

"Is it everything arranged for the announcement of the Planetary Decommission of Earth?" he asked with a small-satisfied smile on his lips.

Gabe stammered, "ye-yes, my emperor but…shouldn't we first inform Earth's KND Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 about it first, sir? I believe the rules say-"

"Yes, yes yes!" Omega waved his hand in irritation; "she shall be informed but only after Numbuh 1 has initiated the Planetary Decommission Protocol effectively. I guess Earth's KND will need at least 7 days for a proper evacuation too so make sure to inform her about it. I'm going to need you to start preparing the arrangements for her and Sector V's relocation at our base under Numbuh 1's charge".

"Right away sir!" Gabe answered still sounding doubtful.

Omega raised a suspicious eyebrow at him, "what's the matter now Gabe? I can sense you're having trouble telling me something else" the emperor glared at him.

"Well… I have some new news, sir" Gabe began, scratching the back of his trunk head, "It's still too early for official conclusions sir but…it seems the Delta Sword is starting to react"

Numbuh Omega's eyes went wide with surprise, "what do you mean?!" he whispered.

"After teleporting the sword back to my lab, I notice the symbol of Delta faintly glowing, sir," he said nervously.

Omega grinned largely like a fox, "so it is repairable after all?"

"It seems so but sir, I'm concerned about the reasons behind why it seems to be starting to react-"

"Oh but that is actually good news! Perhaps the sword is sensing the other remaining missing 4 weapons nearby! Make sure to track down the source of whatever signal it's getting!" Omega told him with clear excitement.

"Yes sir, but-!"

"-Excellent job, Gabe! Please inform me immediately once you manage to fully repair the Delta Sword! I'll make sure you get a proper promotion after this. Maybe you should take Numbuh Infinity's position in our next planetary expedition after Earth is Decommissioned "

Numbuh 74.329 had stars shining thru his eyes with utter happiness, "Your grace is so generous, thank you so much! I shall not disappoint you!"

Numbuh Omega smiled proudly, "Oh please I recognize it when a good job is properly done. When is the meeting going to start?"

"In about 10 minutes sir, we're just waiting for Commanders Numbuh Negative Umpteen, Cardinal, Ordinal, Rational and Irrational to go online" he happily answered.

Omega nodded smiling like a cat, "I shall get prepared then!".

He then heard again the soft bangs of Numbuh Vine's protests and sighed heavily, "Honestly _Think_ , if we weren't friends for so long I would have had you decommissioned already –Gabe!" he said angrily, "please take Numbuh Vine back to her quarters. Make sure she stays in her room until she has decided to behave her normal self. She's been acting out of her mind today and I don't have time to deal with her".

Numbuh 74.329 peeked from his screen towards where Vine was and frowned sadly, "yes sir" he pushed the bottoms of his screen and had her teleported out the room.

"Thank you, that would be all" Numbuh Omega waved his hand and the screen disappeared.

The dark nebula skinned alien looked at the distant form of Earth with a large sinister smile.

 _"_ _Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you sacrifice everything else for it…right sis?"_

/

**[Present Day - McClintock High School]**

"A meeting? Right now after the game?" Rachel fixed her hair as she stepped out of the gym's girls changing rooms, completely refreshed after winning another volleyball match with her team.

Maurice looked up from his green cellphone with his brow furrowed boringly, "yeah, that's what her message says. Wonder what the fuzz will be about now".

They both started to walk back towards the gym courtyard.

"I hope she doesn't try to make us help her on another plan against KND, AGAIN" she whispered only for him to hear.

Maurice chuckled and then noticed a familiar red-haired soccer colonel waiting at the entrance of the gym, "uh? Pepper Ann?".

The famous spirited red-hair turned towards them nervously, "oh yes! I'm not the only one summoned, thanks to Fuzzy!" she sighed relieved.

Rachel and Maurice looked at each other and then at her, "Cree messaged you, too?"

"Yes and I'm freaking terrified! What would she want now?!" Pepper Ann freaked out as she let Maurice open the door to the gym.

The gym's lights were fully on and Maurice and Rachel soon located Cree sitting at the top of the gym bleachers, with a few armored Teen Ninjas guarding on the sides and Chuckie Cavallaro standing firm beside her, fully dressed in the FootBall uniform.

"I have a bad feeling about this now" Maurice murmured and Rachel frowned in agreement.

They began to walk towards where the Prom Queen was waiting for them, with Pepper Ann walking behind the two General Captains, biting her nails nervously.

Cree smiled sweetly at them from her royal sit, "good evening my captains. I'm so glad you answered my call so fast!" she stood up with her hands clapped contently.

Rachel and Maurice made a slight bow while Pepper Ann stood straight and made a military salute.

Cree noticed the red-haired colonel, "I'm so sorry for bothering you again, Pearson. But you know how Ace is, he never answers to any of my calls so I hope you don't mind stepping in his-"

 **"** **BOOM BABY! Did somebody asked for the most handsome boy in school?!"**

Everybody turned around at the loud sound of the gym's doors being slammed open in one blow by the boisterous flashy persona of the General Soccer Captain.

Cree frowned annoyingly, "well look who finally decided to show up!" she said sarcastically.

"FOR PETE' SAKE ANTONIO, STOP DOING THIS TO ME!" Pepper Ann shouted at him as he walked towards where she, Rachel and Maurice were standing.

"My apologies,  _Candela_  girl" he bowed graciously and smiled charmingly at her, "I know I own you big time. Please allow me to take this bullet for you" he smiled with a full handsome white toothy smile.

But Pepper Ann seemed immune at his sparkly Latin version of Johnny Bravo moves, so she rolled her eyes largely instead.

"May I be excused, my queen?" she requested nervously.

Cree waved her hand in a dismissive manner, "Yes of course, Pepper Ann. Thank you for your services, you're dismissed"

The Soccer Colonel made another military salute and quickly made her way out of the room.

Rachel and Maurice exchanged worried side-glances as if thinking the same thing.

_If Ace is here, answering a General Captain summoning…this means bad news._

"Well, since everyone is FINALLY here, I suppose I can start this meeting by going straight to the point" Cree stood up with her hands on her hips, looking very serious now.

"It's about time we address the white elephant in the room: I cannot longer accept having the General Football Captain being MIA," she said severely to the trio' surprise.

"I'm aware it's is against the rules for the Prom Queen to stick her nose in General Captain's business, but you must understand my valid concerns on not having someone to lead our most offensive powerhouse…for an entire year" she was lowly growling now.

Maurice, Rachel, and Ace looked at each other with mild serious concern.

But Ace smiled, shoving his hands into his aviator jacket's pockets in a chill manner, "your concerns are completely valid, your grace. But I guarantee you, the Captains and I have handled the situation with no problems, assisting the Football Team whenever they've needed us. Colonel Chuck here surely knows what I'm talking about".

Ace's golden eyes looked at Chuck with an imposing gleam that the colonel didn't miss. He sweated nervously and nodded.

"Yes, we're all very grateful to our General Captains for their help," he said weakly.

But Cree wasn't having any of it, "still, I believe Chuck has also done an excellent job covering up for Dickson's long year absence and the team surely trusts his leadership". She said firmly.

Ace still smiled, sensing the growing annoyance of Rachel and Maurice without really looking at them. This was a situation the three had been expecting to eventually be addressed if Chad's trip to space ended up taking longer than planned. When Chad was just starting to get the trust of Cree during his infiltration mission, he had made sure the Football Team assisted in must of all the Teen Ninjas crusades against KND, but only so he could personally sabotage their plans and help Sector V in the sidelines.

With Chad gone, the Football team's command was passed temporarily to Chuckie Cavallaro who could only do as much as to what the 3 remaining General Captains would allow him to do, something that obviously ended up interfering with Cree's villainous intentions as they always made sure to NOT send the most offensive teen force to assists her on any battle with the Kids-Next-Door, always blaming on their super busy sport agendas.

And so, with no General Captain available to guide them, the FootBall Team remained out of commission for the Queen to use at her own will.

But obviously, Cree Lincoln's inevitably became aware of the problem and her patience finally reached its boiling point.

The 17-year-old Prom Queen glared at the sassy Soccer Captain, "let me be clear, deary. I can't have the Foot Ball Team in a permanent out-of-commission status any longer" she said menacingly.

"I want to, unofficially, nominate Chuck Cavallaro as the NEW General Captain of the Football Team"

Silence engulfed the gym courtyard for a minute. The few Teen Ninja Soldiers who were present shifted uncomfortably while looking between their leader and the General Captains.

"And officially, that's against the rules, Cree" Maurice's deep voice suddenly broke the silence and surprised everyone. The Basket Ball Captain wasn't exactly known for verbally rejecting any of the Queen's orders so this was a shocking first time.

Cree herself seemed taken aback and her brow furrowed in a fake hurt expression, "sweetie, why do you always have to be so rightful?".

He knew she was referring to how he used to be back in KND days so he raised a questioning eyebrow to pretend being confused by her words.

"You don't understand, I need the Football Team to assist me in the Teen Ninjas mission ASAP. As you might now know, my baby sister has become the Supreme Leader of the Kids-Next-Door and she has proven to be a skillful menace to my power".

Rachel and Maurice couldn't help to internally smile proudly at that bit of information.

"And I realize the reason is that I have grown short-handed in the offensive! Especially now since Father apparently lost interest in fighting too due to Numbuh 1's disappearance! It is imperative for me to have a new Captain for the Football team so an exception MUST be made this time! I trust Chuck's leadership so I would appreciate having him elected now" she insisted.

 _"Of course you would, he's a loyal dog to you after all"_  Rachel thought angrily and Maurice seemed to think the same as his frown grew even angrier.

"Well your grace" Ace' sassy tone returned, "you have made your case very clear. We shall give your suggestion some deep thought and we'll give you our answer as soon as pos-"

"You didn't hear me, Antonio? I said: I need him to be my General Captain NOW" Cree repeated very emphatically, her tone even more low and aggressive now.

The Teen Ninja soldiers were now sweating even more nervously not knowing whose side to take on as the 3 General Captains now looked seriously just as pissed as their Queen. Who were they supposed to side with if a fight was meant to break? The Queen was clearly breaking the rules here so the Captains were actually in their right to be angry at her.

 **_"_ ** **_What is this so-very-tense vibe I'm sensing? This is so not cool!"_ **

The tension was suddenly interrupted as a familiar cool voice was heard from the entrance of the gym.

Everyone turned to see the Steve leaning on the doors with his arms crossed in a very cool pose.

"Your highness!" the Teen Ninjas made a military salute and kneeled in reflex.

Ace, Rachel, and Maurice bowed solemnly as Steve walked past them and began to raise the gym bleachers towards where Cree was standing.

"My King!" Cree nervously greeted him upon him reaching her level, "this was a last-minute emergency reunion, my apologies for not telling you-"

"A last-minute emergency reunion with my General Captains? I thank you for your so impeccable assistance, my Queen, but I would appreciate it if you at least send me a text message next time. If it wasn't because I stumbled with Pearson in the hallways I would have never known!" he sat down with his legs crossed and smiled to her.

Cree growled to herself but still forced a smile, "yes, of course, my love. It won't happen again" you could almost hear her teeth crushing with angry pressure.

The Steve then looked down at the angry faces of Ace, Rachel, and Maurice, "so, what are we discussing now? You seem to have pissed off my Captains".

Cree crossed her arms in annoyance, "it's about what we talked last week, my King. The Football Captain situation? Remember?"

"Ah yes, I remember now. But why do they look so angry? Heck, even Ace looks pissed and he's the chilliest dude I know" he winked at Ace who smirked in response.

"Well" Cree blushed embarrassed, "I…may have, unofficially, suggested Chuckie Cavallaro take Chad's place as the new General Captain" she toyed with her fingers.

Steve looked surprised, his dark glasses slightly falling off his brown eyes while he regarded Chuck questioningly, "Is that right, Chuck my man?"

Chuck trembled nervously, "I-I-I-yes your grace, I just wish to be useful for my Queen's plans"

Steve pinched his nose now looking a bit annoyed, "my love, that's a clear violation of our rules"

"But my King! We NEED the Football Team to fight against KND!"

"Are you telling me you and your Teen Ninjas aren't strong enough to defeat your own baby sister's forces now?" Steve looked at her in disbelief.

Cree gasped offended, "of course not!"

"Alright, then we shall forget you ever unofficially suggested this crazy idea so it doesn't affect your nomination for the next Prom Ball, right my Captains?"

Now it was the turn to Ace, Rachel and Maurice to look surprised.

"But Steve!-"

"Besides, I had this crazy dream in which I saw Chad returning much sooner than we know. I'm sure the Football team won't mind waiting a little bit longer after a whole year without his bravest leader. Right, Chuck?"

The secret-under-cover trio went slightly wide-eyed, silently wondering what the mysterious Teenager Leader was talking about.

Cree sighed in defeat, "fine! But if he's not here before the next Prom Ball, I want them" she pointed at Ace, Rachel, and Maurice, "to fix this situation once and for all" she demanded.

Steve nodded and looked at Ace with a confident grin, "Is that ok to you, Captain Ace?"

Ace looked at Rachel and Maurice who both shrugged at him, not really having much of a choice.

"Sure thing, your highness. You have our word" he nodded with a grin.

"Great! Then this meeting is officially dismissed!" Steve clapped happily much to Cree's annoyance.

The Captain trio did a military salute and turning around they began to make their way out of the gym's courtyard.

Cree glared at Steve as the Captains left the courtyard, "I don't appreciate you undermining my authority in front of them!" She protested.

Steve smiled never the less, "oh because you didn't do the same to me by summoning this meeting without my knowledge?" He teased.

"Honestly Cree, you've ruled with me for years now, you should know better than to anger the General Captains. Our crowns depend on them being on our side, you know?"

Cree blushed angrily at him, "WE are supposed to command them, not the other way around! Three of them used to be the greatest KND operatives of their time! Chad and Rachel were even Supreme Leaders! And yet, I can't seem to use them to fight with me!" She lashed out frustrated.

Steve lowered his glasses to look at her in the eye. "Chad did help you for a while if I recall, and well you know not all teenagers are interested in your crusade against the Kids-Next-Door, my fearsome Queen! They prefer to remain neutral so just be cool and let them be. That's why we have the Captains, to protect those who wish to remain out of the conflict while you and I keep the balance between the kiddos and us in check. So cool your fury and check this awesome guitar solo I came up with the other day!"

He took out a black iPhone out of his pocket while Cree groaned in utter defeat.

/

Once they were out of reach of the Teen Ninja's hearing perimeter, right deep into the locker's hallway, the trio finally dropped their act and their frowns burrowed in concern.

"What the hell was  _ **that**_?!" Rachel whispered aggravated.

"I think we should start paying more attention to Steve. I don't think he's as oblivious as we thought" Maurice whispered alarmed.

"Forget about that for now, when was the last time you two chatted with Chad?!" Ace suddenly questioned them.

Maurice and Rachel both took out their cellphones and noticed the date of the last message their friend sent.

"Almost a week ago, they should let him write again tomorrow" Maurice confirmed him.

"Ok then…" Ace looked up to the glass ceiling of the school with a pensive frown.

"Do you think he's in trouble?" Rachel suddenly said worriedly.

"I don't know, Golden Girl…let's hope he's ok".

The three looked up to the sky and mentally prayed their worries were wrong.

**[The next day - KND Moon Base Headquarters - 07:00 am ]**

"All right, I think this pre-decommission party for Numbuh 60 is going to be a total bombastic success!" Numbuh 2 cheered, stretching out in his seat of the Global Command meeting room.

He and Numbuh 5 had been in charge of fine-tuning all the remaining preparations for today's Farewell Pre-Decommission Party before Patton's 13th birthday tomorrow. Since Numbuh 60 was one of the most respected and loved senior operatives of the force, Abby had insisted on giving the greatest farewell event to thank him for all his amazing dedication, especially in the training and formation of the millions of the current active KND operatives. She even sent invitations to all the KND sectors so everyone could come, have some well-deserved fun while paying their respects to him.

"Numbuh 5 has to admit she's impressed with all the calculations you have taken for this event,  _sugar cube_ " she giggled with tired eyes.

Hoagie blushed upon hearing the pet name she had come for him this past year. The closer they got to their imminent 13th year, the more he sensed something was shifting between the two. Crushing was forbidden in the Kids-Next-Door rules as it was something related to puberty and teenhood so the feeling was constantly encouraged to be kept discretely and to never make it public. Of course, it was easier to say than to do it, as must operatives failed to hide their harboring feelings especially upon the brick of puberty.

Hoagie wasn't surprised when he started to feel different towards his cool teammate and current Supreme Leader. After all, he had crushed over Cree's once too so to discover himself one day getting nervous at a simple smile from Numbuh 5, he figured out right away what was going on. But this time it was different, because he KNEW Abby, he had had so many adventures with her that he knew he wasn't just crushing over her because yeah she was as pretty and more even so than her older sister, no, he knew he liked her too for who she was inside and that made the crush feel all the kinds of wrong and right at the same time. Wrong because it was forbidden FOR NOW, but it was right because they would grow together and he knew the feeling wasn't going to go away after his decommission.

Growing up didn't seem so bad now that he thought about it. He just hoped they wouldn't really forget much about each other after their brains got rebooted.

The sound of someone clearing her throat interrupted his train of thoughts as Numbuh 86 announced her entrance into the room.

"Supreme Leader, General Numbuh 2, good morning" Fanny greeted them formally while taking her seat in the large table with a mug full of hot cocoa in her hand.

"G' morning, Freckles. Did you check on our soon-to-be birthday boy?" Numbuh 5 asked her with mild worry. She wasn't honestly expecting Patton to try anything funny but still, they needed to be precautious with any random burst of second doubts from him.

Numbuh 86 nodded, her eyes unusually red, "yes, I just saw him picking up his breakfast and will join us soon...the tracker device Colonel Numbuh 4 gave to him seems to be working just fine" she sounded groggy.

Abby and Hoagie exchanged looks of worry. "Are you ok, Numbuh 86?" The Supreme Leader asked with kindness.

The famously boisterous Chief of Decommission rubbed her nose and forced a grin, "everything is fine, Supreme Leader".

However, you didn't need to be brainy to figure out what was going on with her. Fanny had grown up with Patton, they practically joined KND together with Rachel McKenzie years ago. The trio had been inseparable, even after Rachel's ascension to the Supreme Commandership. Losing her had been a giant blow to both Numbuh 60 and 86, to the point none of the two had had yet the courage to visit the ex-Supreme Leader in her new civil teenager life. And now that it was Patton's turn, Abby sensed things were a bit too much to handle for the current Chief of Decommission.

"If you don't feel well Fanny, you can go back to bed. I don't think there is anything really important to discuss in today's global briefing meeting anyway. You won't be missing anything big" Numbuh 5 tried to give her a way out without scaring the temperamental operative with too much show of affection.

But Fanny shook her head, "I feel fine. Besides, I just received the list of operatives to be decommissioned this next month and I think the Supreme Leader should know about them since a few of them are in key positions and substitutes will need to be selected ASAP".

She raised her head from the list and looked around the room, "Where are Numbuh 4 and 3?" She asked.

Numbuh 2 sighed, "probably still getting breakfast. Numbuh 3 is really picky with getting the perfect Rainbow Monkey pancakes and Numbuh 4 just love to give our chef hell for it".

"What?!" Now Numbuh 86 sounded more like herself, "argh! Never mind, would the Supreme Leader mind me doing the brief of the list without the Second Chief of Decommissioning? Pretty please?" It sounded like Numbuh 4 was going to receive his own dose of hell later.

"Yeah, yeah, just jump right to the positions we're going to need to cover most urgently," Numbuh 5 said while giving a bite to her Donna filled with egg.

Numbuh 86 cleared her throat and preceded, "well, first of all, there's the situation of who will take...Numbuh 60's place as the new Global Director of the Cadets-Next-Door Academy..."

"I'm still working on that, let's go to the next one" Abby quickly interjected, not wanting to put more salt on Numbuh 86's wounded mood this morning with more painful emotional tasks.

"Alright" Numbuh 86 flipped the pages of her pad until a neon yellow name caught her eyes, "well this is not exactly an urgent position to cover but it seems you'll need to appoint a new leader for Sector L," she said uninterested.

However, Numbuh 5 perked in attention while Numbuh 2 spat his hot cocoa in shock, "WHAT, Numbuh 10 is turning 13 next month?!" he shouted.

Numbuh 86 rolled her eyes largely, "please tell me you don't fancy her as much as everybody else in the whole KND?" She said sarcastically.

Numbuh 5 giggled while Numbuh 2 glared with his chubby cheeks red, "No of course not! Geez" he looked at Abby as if reassuring her he didn't, "but she's Nigel's cousin so she is kinda family to us"

Numbuh 5 arched an eyebrow, "family? We barely know the girl, Numbuh 2. I don't think even Nigel knew her that much. She's kinda like the daughter of a lost brother of Numbuh 1's mom or some jazz like that" she mentioned.

"Yeah, I remember now" Hoagie giggled and scratched the back of his head.

"Anyway" Numbuh 86 tried to refocus the conversation, "I understand Sector L is not a combatant sector, they're mostly in charge of broadcasting the news in the KND News Channel and also of keeping the KND Global Broadcasting and Communication System in function, so…Aside from being the sector's leader and the main anchor of the news, I don't think Global Command should worry much about who should take Numbuh 10's position-"

"Ah man but we have to do something spectacular for her pre-decommission party, she's a pretty popular operative after all" Numbuh 2 worried out loud.

"What?! Are you kidding me?!"

**"NUMBUH 5!"**

Suddenly Numbuh 4 and 3 came out running thru the doors of the Global Command Meeting room, their faces paled and their eyes big as plates with horror.

"What's going on?" Numbuh 5 stood up from her chair with worry burrowing her frown.

Wally and Kuki caught their breath and looked at them with the most horrified expression Numbuh 5 had ever seen them have since the incident with Grandfather.

Numbuh 4 swallowed heavily, sweat running down his golden hair,  **"we received an urgent message from Numbuh Vine… Something terrible happened! We must evacuate the planet**   **NOW!"**

/

**A.N.:**

Thank you so much for your patience and again, my apologies for this very late update! I hope the extra long chapter compensates for it!

**Comments and reviews are really appreciated!**

Please check out my Tumblr page and other social medias for the art of this and the previews chapters!

Have a nice weekend!

**_On the next episode of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door: "War is coming"_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N.:
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you so much for your patience and again, my apologies for this very late update! I hope the extra long chapter compensates for it!
> 
>  
> 
> Comments and reviews are really appreciated!
> 
>  
> 
> Please check out my Tumblr page and other social medias for the art of this and the previews chapters!
> 
>  
> 
> Have a nice weekend!
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> On the next episode of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door: “War is coming”


	5. Evacuate Everyone!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical mistakes! Thank you so much for your support! Please follow me on IG and Tumblr (@KicaCris) for more art related to this story!

**Now loading :**

** Galactic-Kids-Next-Door mission **

** Operation: ** **A.L.P.H.A.**

**Story written by Cris Carvalho**

**Check out the cover art of this chapter on my Tumblr – Twitter - IG: @KicaCris**

****

** Chapter 5: **

**Evacuate Everyone!**

.

.

.

 

 

**[One year ago]**

 

.

.

.

_‘If you could choose to remain a kid forever, would you do it?’_

_I remember our ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 once asked us this question…Numbuh 274 and I must have had the same answer written very clear in our eyes because the Supreme Leader read us without one of us giving him an answer._

_To be a kid forever…that would be amazing, wouldn’t it?_

_To have never-ending summers of fun with our friends, eating all the candies and pizza we want, watch cartoons all day forever, play every single game there is and would ever exist, …to never stop being Kids-Next-Door operatives._

_When Ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 asked us that question, the answer seemed very obvious._

_But do you know what was his answer to us?_

_‘But only the bravest kids grow up because…growing up would be an awfully big adventure!’_

_His answer didn’t make much sense to me at the time._

_But now, today on my 13th birthday…I understand perfectly what he was trying to tell us._

_Yes, growing up sounds scary, truly frightening. None knows what is really going to be like once we are out there._

_But, isn’t every new mission frightening too? We can pretend to be brave but the truth is deep down we are on the verge of wetting our pants whenever we fight an evil adult, isn’t it?_

_And what do we do?_

_Do we run away from the battle?_

_No, we don’t!_

_We shook the nervousness away, plant our feet firmly and face the enemy bravely saying:_

**_‘Kids-Next-Door, BATTLE STATIONS!’_ **

_And with that our fears disappear._

_With every new scary mission, we become braver and stronger._

_My fellow Kids-Next-Door, please don’t be sad for me today…because today is just the beginning of a brand new mission for me._

_I face this day as the day I chose to take over Numbuh 274’s place as Supreme Leader, just as he did when Numbuh 100 too left us._

_We can’t be kids forever, and that’s ok._

_Because as the great Numbuh Alpha once said: “Once you’re a Kids-Next-Door operative…you will ALWAYS be a Kids-Next-Door operative!”_

_So brush away those tears, shook away the fear, plant your feet firmly, put on the bravest face you can make and say with me:_

_“KIDS-NEXT-DOOR!-”_

 

**“BATTLE STATIONS!!!!!!!!”** the whole auditorium roared in response as thunderous standing ovation made the whole Moon Base shake with emotion.

 

Numbuh 362 put a hand on her heart and slightly bowed to them as they continued to clap and shout for her. She was glad she had managed to turn around what was typically a very sad day into a much uplifting one.  

 

She began to turn around from the podium when suddenly was tackled into a strong hug from two figures.

 

Rachel sighed deeply as Numbuh 86 and 60 sobbed on her shoulders and squeezed her hard as if silently begging her to not leave them.

 

“Guys come on…Mom gave me these new clothes as an early birthday present and she will kill me if she sees it wet with your tears and goobers hahaha” she laughed while patting their backs.

 

They both stopped their iron hugging and looked at her with the saddest tearing eyes, their noses and cheeks red and their breathing agitated. They noticed her new long-sleeved knitted orange dress with the brown leather belt around her waist, the dark blue jean and matching leather boots, and the new earrings that adorned her pierced ears. The three of them had grown together and rarely ever cared to notice the changes happening around them, but today it was impossible not to notice as even her smile seemed different.

 

“You-you’” Fanny hiccupped, “you’re wearing heels!!!” more tears ran down her freckled cheeks.

 

Rachel blinked silently in confusion for a second as she looked at her boots and then giggled, “oh come on Fanny, the heels are barely noticeable, just an extra inch of height really!”

 

“YOU’RE WEARING HEEEEEEELS!!!” She went to her shoulder again sobbing and Rachel sighed again while Patton covered his eyes with his arm and gripped his teeth in a futile attempt to not be seeing crying any harder.

 

“Numbuh 86 I command you to stop crying NOW!” Rachel suddenly said seriously while gently pushing Fanny off her shoulder.

 

The red-haired girl stepped back a few steps and tried to stop her hiccups but tears kept running down her freckles, “Yes-yes, Numbuh 362!”

 

She waited a few seconds until Fanny’s breathing was much calmer and Patton had lowered his arm once again. They both straightened themselves a bit and tried to look as much serious as their teary eyes could allow them.

 

“That’s much better”

 

“Can I count on you both to remain being the toughest global command operatives there is and help Numbuh 5 lead the Kids-Next-Door as long as you can?” she asked them with the kindest smile.

 

They both nodded and made a military salute. “Yes Numbuh 362, ma’am, you can count on us!” they both responded in unison.

 

She grinned with pride, “good! And you better still visit me because mom and dad would find strange if my best friends suddenly disappear from my life. I might not remember my days as a KND operative but I know I will still remember you both being my friends. Those are my final two orders for both of you, do you understand? Stay loyal to Numbuh 5 and visit me”

 

“Yes Numbuh 362!” they both cried. Patton then grabbed Fanny from her shoulders and gently led her away from Rachel as a new figure began to walk towards her.

 

Rachel smiled as Numbuh 5, now wearing the rebranded Supreme Leader helmet, approached her while being flanked by the recently promoted Global Command Sector V.

 

Abby looked up at her with a small smile, “Numbuh 5 thinks you just beat Numbuh 100’s decommission speech out of the park”.

 

That made Rachel blush slightly and scratch her head embarrassingly, “Nah, his was more memorable. I just repeated a few of his words anyway”.

 

“Thank you, Numbuh 362” Numbuh 5 suddenly said, “for everything really, for all your hard work and dedication to KND. I hope to become at least a quarter of the Supreme Leader you were”.

 

Rachel’s eyes glimmered, “No. You’ll be better than me, Abby” she said softly, “better than Chad or Numbuh 100 even. I’m sure of it”.

 

She then opened her purse and took out a small green notebook from it. Abby blinked in confusion as Rachel handled it to her.

 

“These last months I taught you everything I know about being the KND Supreme Leader, but I know every Supreme Leader era is different from the previous one. So, if for any reason you find yourself in a situation you don’t know how to handle it, you might find guidance in here”.

 

Abby grabbed the small notebook and her eyes went big upon reading the engraved number ‘100’ in its cover.

 

“This was given to Chad when he became Supreme Leader and I recovered it from his abandoned belongings when the Supreme Leader’s office was given to me. It has handwritten notes from Numbuh 100’s days as Supreme Leader” Rachel explained.

 

Numbuh 5 gapped at it in surprise, “handwritten notes? About what?”

 

“Everything”

 

Abby looked at Rachel with a questioning brow raised.

 

But Numbuh 362 didn’t say much more, “It’s a bit cryptic to read I’m warning you. Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 liked to play being mysterious” she rolled her eyes largely at the memory, “but I know you’re a smart cookie and you’ll figure things out easily”.

 

Just then, Numbuh 2, 3 and 4 came closer to both with a covered big silver tray.

 

“Numbuh 362, ma’am” Hoagie began with a sad expression and uncovered the plate slowly.

 

What was under the silver lit was a blue and orange birthday cake, adorned with the number 13 made of a bunch of random objects and a burning small candle on top of it.

 

Kuki sniffed as Wally grabbed her hand, “it’s time to blow out your candle” she said softly and the auditorium went completely silent.

 

Rachel looked at the cake and then to Abby.

 

Abby nodded with a calm smile, “don’t forget to make a wish”.

 

Numbuh 362 came closer to the cake, looked at the number 13 and then closed her eyes for an entire minute. Then, she opened her eyes again and taking a deep breath she proceeded to blow out the candle until its light disappeared completely.

 

“Happy 13th birthday…Numbuh 362, ma’am” Wally said brushing his tears under his bangs. He then looked behind him to where Numbuh 86 was. The red-haired was drowning her sobs in Numbuh 60’s sweater to prevent being heard. Patton looked from her head and then to Wally and nodded solemnly at him.

 

Numbuh 4 then looked to the other side, where the Decommission Squad was waiting in silence and then nodded to them.

 

Lieutenant Numbuh 91 walked towards them looking completely somber and sad. She stopped besides Numbuh 5, and making a military salute she said: “Please follow me, Rachel T. Mckenzie”.

 

Abby looked at Rachel who turned around towards the millions of KND operatives, their sniffs and sobs echoing in the auditorium.

 

She lifted a fist and with all the strength of her lungs she exclaimed, **“KIDS-NEXT-DOOR RULES!”** she shouted, and Abby couldn’t help but remember Maurice’s decommission a year before this day.

 

 **“KIDS-NEXT-DOOR RULES!!!”** Everyone chanted back weakly.

 

Rachel began to walk, slowly passing by Numbuh 60, 86, Sector V and finally Numbuh 5.

 

“Rachel wait!”

 

The blond turned around to look at Abby again.

 

The new Supreme Leader’s eyes gleamed with curious mischief. There was something in her brown eyes that Rachel could perceive as if Numbuh 5 was hiding something she couldn’t say out loud.

 

“Goodbye and… good luck”

 

Rachel looked at her in silence but then smiled with a nod.

 

“Good luck to you too…Supreme Leader Numbuh 5”

 

And with that, the door of the Decommissioning Chamber closed behind the back of the era of another KND Supreme Leader.

 

 

 

 

 

.

.

.

 

 

“Good luck to all of you”

 

.

.

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**[A year later - Present time]**

 

In a dark room, a figure takes the center with several squared shaped screens surrounding him. An image of planet Earth is suddenly displayed in front of him.

 

“Earth, a class G planet, the only one in its locality capable of sustaining carbon-based life due to its abundance of water and atmosphere. Home to over 8.70 million different life forms, but the planet’s dominant species is human of which there are approximately 7 billion. Of that number, more than 3 quarters are over the age of 13…” in other words: adults” upon saying this, a large red cross flashed over the image of planet Earth.

 

The figure continues to speak, “that’s why I have no choice but to do this…” a beam of light suddenly shines over the figure revealing it to be a bald human boy of about 12 years old, wearing an oversized red hooded sweater, khaki shorts, space gray boots with a pair of silver visor glasses covering his eyes. It was Nigel Uno, aka Numbuh 1, human representative operative of Earth’s KND.

 

The platform under his feet makes a mechanical sound and small cylindrical booth raises from it, alien symbols shine brightly as a booger-activated console appears in front of him. Decisively, he raises a finger and shoves it swiftly into his nose, taking out a small piece of his own snot.

 

He looks at it briefly and then seems to proceed to plug it inside the port…

 

**“NO!”**

 

A familiar voice suddenly halts his finger as it was about to introduce the DNA material. A second light turns on and a beaten and chained Chad Dickson is seen desperately trying to free himself from his laser handcuffs.

 

“My family is there! Your family! Our friends!” he tries to reason with Nigel.

 

“It’s ruled by adults…” Numbuh 1 glances over his shoulder at him completely emotionless. “… **Infested** …too far gone” he turns around and looks again at the snot-DNA reader port.

 

“What about **Sector V**?!” Chad questions him loudly, “Hoagie, Kuki, Wallabee, and Abigail!” he makes a pause and glares at Numbuh 1’s back, “ **Abby would never let you do this!** ” he points out lowly in between clenched teeth.

 

Chad sees as the mention of Abby seems to affect Nigel as he retracts his finger away and suddenly seems full of doubt for a second.

 

“There! Do we need more proof of where his allegiance lies?”

 

Suddenly a female mechanic voice sounds loudly around them as a large red screen appears with the symbol of Numbuh Nominal flashing brightly yellow on it.

 

A light neon blue screen appears next to her with the symbol of Beth Numbuh, “this is… indicative” he agrees in a similar mechanic tone.

 

“Bah!” another green screen lights on, and Nigel and Chad recognize the symbol of Numbuh Ordinal, speaking in his usual semi incomprehensible self, “this human –norf, norf.- a galactic-level operative? –norf- hahahaha! –norf-” he loudly laughs mockingly.

 

“There are no human galactic operatives!” a yellow screen with the red insignia of Numbuh Negative Umpteen complains.

 

“Uh, actually that’s not true…” Nigel turns to the front again to find another alien operative speaking and contrary to the others this one was actually fully showing himself instead of hiding behind a colorful screen anonymously. He frowned as he recognized the voice of this humanoid plant operative that looked like a talking-tree.

 

“There were the famous…” he suddenly stops mid-sentence, “wait-oh for the love of-“ he face palmed exasperatedly and began to push buttons on his own screen, “I can never seem to remember how to adjust the privacy settings on this inter-planetary conference calls”.

 

As he continued to push his screen buttons, his shape suddenly flashes brightly and he shape-shifts into the familiar human form of Numbuh 74.239, “Argh! And now my human disguise is acting up!” he complaints outraged, “who is running your tech department while I was on Earth?! Numbuh Moron?!” he yells from his end of the line.

 

“Who are you calling moron?!” Numbuh Nominal yells back at him from her own screen, “you’ve been on Earth for so long you now reek adult just like that one!”.

 

Numbuh 74.239 gasps offended as several more voices and screens start to also talk at the same time expressing their opinions and complains loudly. Nigel and Chad look around them as the conference turns heated and unintelligible rapidly.

 

The teenager glances worriedly at Numbuh 1 as he looks down at the booger in his finger pensively.

 

 ** _“Please! GKND!”_** A louder omnipotent voice suddenly silences the room.

 

Nigel looks up at the source of the powerful voice only to find a blinding yellow light that represented the Supreme Galactic Emperor, Numbuh Omega. **_“The decision does not come lightly, the decision is-”_**

 

**“DON’T DO IT NIGEL!”**

Chad begs and fights against his chains one more time as he shouts as loudly as he could in an attempt to be heard above Numbuh Omega’s omnipotent voice.

 

**“THIS ISN’T WHAT THE KIDS-NEXT-DOOR IS ABOUT-!”**

 

**_“SILENCE!”_ **

 

Omega yells angrily making Chad flinch before the light over him is turned off completely and he disappears from the room.

 

 ** _“The decision…is Nigel Uno’s”_** the loud sinister voice of the Emperor declared with finality.

 

Silence engulfed the conference room one more time, with the only sound coming from the flashing symbols of the booger-activated console that is in front of Nigel.

 

He raises his eyes again and silently looks at the holographic image of his home planet and then gives a long look at the hundreds of colorful screens of the many galactic-level operatives that silently and judgingly waited for his response.

 

After a minute that seemed to have lasted forever, Nigel Uno straightens himself and raises his left hand in a military salute. A single tear is seen sliding down his cheek.

 

**“GALACTIC-KIDS-NEXT-DOOR RULES!”**

 

He loudly chants as he shoves his finger down the console and willingly sentences Earth…

 

To a **Planetary Decommission**.

 

 

 

///

 

 

**[GKND Research Facilities – Numbuh 74.239 Headquarters – 05:30 am]**

 

The familiar overwhelming smell of disinfectant and cleaning products hit her as she slowly began to wake up. Her blurred vision adjusted to the bright blinding white light and soon she began to see her new surroundings. She was no longer in Numbuh Omega’s dark headquarters, she could tell, as the room she was now was too bright and white for the Supreme Emperor’s likeness. 

 

Groaning, she began to remember. Omega had grown annoyed of her and decided to sent her away. Looking at her surroundings again, she noticed several large metallic tables with crystal lab equipments all over the place. Her eyes fell on one particular crystal tube that was in the corner of the room, with the remains of the Delta Sword’s hilt floating softly inside.

 

She was in Numbuh 74.239’s lab.

 

Shaking her head she began to float, but she barely managed to move an inch and felt an invisible wall hit her head.

 

She was still encased, she was still trapped. 

 

A wave of annoyance and desperation hit her as her vines rubbed her head, and growling she began to bang repeatedly the walls of the purple diamond that still had her trapped. She punched them as hard as she could until her vines started to pulse in pain and exhaustion.

 

Lizzie sighed in defeat and let her vines fell loosely over the invisible wall in resignation. Small tears began to form in the corner of her alien eyes as the memories of last week’s events returned to her: Chad getting thrown into a dark cell and Nigel falling under Numbuh Omega’s trap and being manipulated into requesting a Planetary Decommission for Earth.

 

“What did I do? This is all my fault…I shouldn’t have agreed to this…I thought Nigie would be stronger, I thought he would be the one to change Numbuh Omega’s mind but…stupid! Stupid!....I underestimated his power…what should I do now?”

 

Just when her tears were about to fall down, she heard it, the hissing sound of the lab being opened and with wide eyes, she saw the human form of Numbuh 74.239 entering the room.

 

“Ah, there you are! Finally awake! You missed the whole show my dear friend” he approached her and stopped a few inches away from her. 

 

Lizzie immediately began to bang the crystal hurriedly again, her eyes screaming to him in help.

 

Gabe giggled but his frown was burrowed with worry, “Alright, alright, geez! Just calm down so I can get you out of there”.

 

He took the floating purple diamond that contained the furious Lizzie and by just touching the top of the Diamond, the walls around her finally disappeared.

 

She floated higher and spun in the air while stretching her vines freely. “Finally! Oh god, what an awful sensation to be trapped like that! Thank you! Thank you!” 

 

She glomped him and hugged him with all her 5 vines making him laugh. Gabe scratched the back of his head, “well yeah...you’re lucky he didn’t throw you with Chad to the cells. I know you’re his favorite and all but boy, you need to be more careful with our Emperors’ temper-“

 

“Gabe!” She stopped hugging him and floated a few inches away in front of him, “what happened?! Did...did Nigel-?”

 

Numbuh 74.239 smiled awkwardly at her, “oh yeah he did it, I just came back from Earth’s Planetary Decommission announcement. It was more dramatic than what I expected I guess-“

 

“No!” Lizzie backed away from Gabe with her eyes big as plates, “why did you let him do it?! Gabe, he did it against his will!”

 

He rubbed his left arm, looking very uncomfortable “Well no...he was fully aware of what he's doing-“ he weakly defended. 

 

“Gabe! I know about your visors, I know you brainwashed him!” she reprimanded him.

 

He lifted his hands in defense, “No! No, I didn’t! I mean, sure the visors do produce neural waves that may or may not affect the neural circuits of the users’ frontal lobe, which compromises a tiny bit the sense of morality and amplifies the senses of paranoia” he pulled from his shirt collar nervously, “but you gotta admit, the idea was already there in his brain so, the visors probably didn’t have much to do here…”

 

Lizzie frowned angrily at him and pressed her alien face hard against his nose with the deadliest glare she had ever muster. “You and I know, Nigel Uno Prime, aka Numbuh 1, leader of Sector V, son of Numbuh 0, wouldn’t have never, EVER, in his right mind chosen to condemn his family, friends and the freaking Kids-Next-Door to an undetermined suspended animation. Yes, of course, the idea of a planetary decommission could have been there in his brain because we know Nigel is the most paranoid human we know, but still, he wouldn’t ever have taken the option!!!!” She yelled at him. 

 

Numbuh 74.239 backed away from her intimidated with his hands still raised, “fine, yes you’re right! But what did you want me to do? You know this is what Numbuh Omega wanted all along. I just couldn’t go against his will-“

 

“You are coward!” she growled at him.

 

Gabe gasped offended and frowned angrily at her with his hands on his hips “Oh because YOU managed to stop him on your own just fine!” he spat back at her. “Seriously, what was YOUR plan then? What were you expecting to happen by bringing Nigel and Chad to GKND?! Uh?! Something fun?! You know what Omega intended to do with Earth for a very, VERY long time!”

 

Lizzie cooled down her anger and frowned in shame at her own mistake, “I…I honestly thought Nigel was not going to fall in his trap…”

 

Gabe sighed not really wanting to be angry at her, “Lizzie… you know what Omega is capable of doing once he sets his mind into something…there was nothing we could do to change his mind” he said as he shoved his hands inside his lab coat pockets and looked down to his shoes.

 

“We have to do something” he heard her said and his eyes flew up towards her in shock.

 

“You’re joking, right? Lizzie is done!”

 

“We have to save Earth from getting destroyed!” 

 

“It’s not going to be destroyed, it’s going to be decommissioned!”

 

Lizzie glared at him, “No Gabe, you know it won’t…you know KND will fight back”

 

Gabe went pale and sweated nervously, “No-no, they can’t! That would be the foolish thing to do!”

 

“Gabe” Lizzie interrupted him looking him straight in his eyes, “it doesn’t matter what Nigel just did. Do you know who is the current KND Supreme Leader?”

 

Numbuh 75.239 was silent for a second, “yes I know but-“

 

“You know Numbuh 5 and Sector V won’t allow it...KND will oppose the GKND order”

 

Gabe visibly paled, “They can’t...look how well it resulted for our own planet! If it wasn’t because a couple of us surrendered before the war started...” he 

 

“Our planet’s KND wasn’t as strong as Earth’s KND...” Lizzie admitted sadly, “but Earth’s different” 

 

Numbuh 74.239 shook his head, “no...no, we have to warn Numbuh 5 to not do something as foolish-“

 

“Gabe, do you really want for our surrogate human families to suffer the same fate of our original families?! My human sister just had a baby!” she yelled at him with tears in her eyes. “Planet Planti is gone! I don’t want Earth to be gone too! I don’t want to lose my family again!” 

 

“We are not supposed to get attached to them, Lizzie!” Gabe tried to reason but tears were already forming in the corner of his own eyes, “we-we…oh god,” he rubbed his eyes while fighting his emotions.

 

“Gabe...I know you love your human family and your life on Earth, just as much as I do...”

 

He bit his lip with remorse.

 

“And...we both know...Numbuh Omega only wants to punish Earth and KND for what happened to Lady Alpha” 

 

Numbuh 74.239 went wide-eyed as a dreadful realization suddenly hit him while remembering the conversation he had with the Emperor before the Planetary Decommission announcement.

 

“He...only gave 7 days for the evacuation”

 

“WHAT?! A planetary decommission usually takes a month!!! In 7 days the only ones who would be able to leave Earth would be the KND Sectors!” 

 

“Oh gosh” Gabe grabbed his hair in regret, “he totally played me with that promotion-“

 

“Gabe! We have to warn Numbuh 5! There’s no time!”

 

“But Lizzie I...I can’t betray him! You know what he’s capable of doing-“

 

“But Gabe!”

 

“Listen I…I need some air…we have to come up with a plan to prevent Earth’s KND to go into an unnecessary war with GKND. A planetary decommission doesn’t literally mean the end of the world! All of Earth’s KND sectors will be incorporated to GKND and even Sector V will be back again under Numbuh 1’s leadership! It will be alright, we’ll work something out to save Earth from Omega- I mean, the virus-“

 

“Gabe please!”

 

But Numbuh 74.239 was too terrified to even listen to her. He grabbed one of her vines and patted it softly, “it will be alright Lizzie. Let’s just put a pin on it, alright? Earth would be safe as long as Omega keeps being fine with a simple planetary decommission and not something more drastic!”

 

“Gabe…”

 

“In the meantime, why don’t you help me out with the Delta Sword revival project? Did you hear what I told Omega? It’s awake!” he tried to change the subject. 

 

“Gabe-wait, what do you mean is awake?” she was momentarily curious.

 

“Apparently It’s not as dead and fossilized as we thought. The symbol of Delta is now faintly pulsing red again!” he said excitedly. 

 

Lizzie frowned even more, “but, we tested it for years and nothing made it react…why now?” 

 

“I don’t know!” he chuckled in disbelief, “but ever since it was sent back to the lab after Omega showed it to Chad and Nigel, it’s like it came back to life!” 

 

Lizzie went wide-eyed in complete shock. 

 

“Numbuh Omega wants us to try to figure out what made it came back to life. He thinks it might be sensing another of the Alpha Weapons nearby or something. Oooooh! Can you imagine Lizzie if we manage to repair it and find the rest of the weapons too? I’m so excited!” he rubbed his hands eagerly but Lizzie continued silent.

 

Suddenly his watch started to beep with a programmed alarmed. 

 

“Oh look at the hour. It’s time for Chad and Nigel to get their weekly calls for home. We better do this quick so we can start working on the Delta Sword today!” 

 

He walked hurriedly towards his desk in the corner and opening a drawer he took Nigel’s old brick phone and Chad’s red iPhone. He looked at the phones and then to Lizzie with doubt now.

 

“You know what? I can handle this on my own. I think you should remain in the labs for a while until Numbuh Omega has forgotten this whole ordeal with you” he chuckled nervously, “why don’t you get yourself refreshed while I go check on Chad? I’ll be right back! Just stay where you are!”

 

She saw him ran towards the door and leave the headquarters hurriedly. The door to the room closed shut with the familiar sound of a security lock being put in place and once again she found herself trapped. 

 

But this time, she wasn’t so much preoccupied about it as her mind seemed completely focused on just two things: a very rushed 7-day evacuation order and a certain legendary weapon mysteriously active.

 

She glanced at the tube with the floating Delta Sword’s hilt once again and noticed the faint red pulsing light coming from its symbol. Gabe and Omega thought the hilt was reacting again because it was sensing another of its sibling weapons but…something in her gut was telling her that wasn’t the case. 

 

Her eyes then noticed the computer on Numbuh 74.239’s desk and frowning in determination she made up her mind and hurried towards the most urgent task in her mind:  **to warn Sector V.**

 

 

///

 

**[KND Moon Base - 05:45 am]**

 

 

Unknown to everyone in KND, ever since Numbuh One had been recruited by GKND a mysterious alien operative had maintained contact with Sector V, giving them updates and reports of his training and overall his status inside the force. At first, Numbuh 5 had questioned the reasons to why this particular operative was doing this since they weren’t supposed to even know about the existence of GKND, but since this was the only way to know whether Nigel was ok or not, she kept quiet and let the thing go on without stirring much fuzz about it.

 

The operative identified herself as Numbuh Vine, a green-eyed alien that looked like a mix between a jellyfish and a vine plant. She had 5 long vine-like arms full of leaves and always wore an upside-down pot plant on her head. She was always moody and liked to talk very sternly, always giving the reports as if the task was more of a burden than a mission.

 

At first Sector V didn’t know exactly how to interact with her every time she called. They would end up giving her very short and cautious robotic answers, fearing that any sign of disrespect towards her would compromise getting any information about Nigel ever again. But a few months after the first calls began to happen, they eventually warmed up to her and began to treat her with usual familiarity. They would even dare to tease her prompting her to hang on their calls completely mad at them, but thankfully she would still call again as if nothing had happened.

 

Oddly enough Numbuh Vine would usually call them once every month using an encrypted signal that was untraceable by any standard KND communication devise and by hacking Numbuh 2’s personal computer in his lab at the Moon Base. Hoagie was never happy about it, always feeling greatly offended that some random alien operative seemed to be capable of hacking his computer repeatedly regardless of the many upgrades he would do to his own super firewall (and yes he would always try to make his computer harder to hack for her), as if challenging her with every single call in a futile way to save his computer-tech pride.

 

But Numbuh Vine wouldn’t even register it, as her calls will always go thru regardless of any of Numbuh 2’s tech shenanigans. 

 

 

A year after Rachel’s decommission thought Numbuh Vine’s call changed drastically. Reports about Nigel’ status were no longer her priority, but instead she seemed now more interested in getting reported back about the status of all KND Sector bases, constantly questioning whether or not every tree-house was properly designed to be capable of sustaining itself in space. As the Global Command General and Head of the 2x4 Engineer Division, the question had irritated Numbuh 2 specially, but Numbuh 5’s orders had been final and so Hoagie would spend the following months checking every blueprint and ordering proper maintenance and fixes for all the KND Sector Tree-Houses that existed on Earth. 

 

 

None knew why Numbuh 5 had agreed to put Numbuh 2 in such titanic labor, nor why she would continue to attend every strange request Numbuh Vine would come up with.

 

Time passed and strangely Numbuh Vine’s call began to be less frequent. It’s been 3 months since her last call.

 

Until that fateful morning, right when Numbuh 3 and 4 were on their way to get their breakfast at the Moon Base Cafeteria. 

 

 

“I heard they are serving rainbow monkey pancakes today at the cafeteria!” Kuki skipped happily besides Numbuh 4, twirling gracefully in excitement. 

 

“He! Wanna bet how fast I can piss Gordon off this time?” Wally smirked while rubbing his hands but Kuki frowned at him.

 

“Wally don’t be mean, the last rainbow monkey pancakes he made me were good!”

 

“But they weren’t PERFECT, and that snobby brat excuse of chef ain’t getting a free pass from me after that ridiculous outburst at ex-Numbuh 362 pre-decommission party! If he claims so much to be the next Gordon Ramsey or whatever then he had to stop making half-assed-“

 

“WALLY LANGUAGE!”

 

“Oh please Kuki, we’re 12 now. It’s not like you haven’t-”

 

“I have not said such ugly words!” Numbuh 3 pouted angrily at him with her cheeks red.

 

Wally smirked teasingly at her, “oh but I know you have!” 

 

“That…that was one time! I got stepped on hard and the words slipped away from me”

 

“Sure-“

 

“Lieutenant Numbuh 4! General Numbuh 3!” they both suddenly heard from behind them. 

 

Turning around they found one of the members of the Deep Sea Science Lab, Numbuh 275, running towards them. 

 

“Hey, Numbuh 275, where is the fire?” Numbuh 4 joked as the scientist operative stopped and recovered his breath. 

 

“I’m sorry to bother you, sir, ma’am, but I was just delivering some reports at General Numbuh 2’s office and noticed his computer beeping like crazy!” he said while adjusting his glasses.

 

Numbuh 4 and 3 went rigid, wondering if this meant what they both were thinking meant. 

 

“Really? Well that’s good old Numbuh 2 for ya, always putting random alarms for any reminder hehe” Kuki giggled nervously, “did you, uhm, managed to turn it off?” 

 

“I tried”

 

The answer made both Numbuh 4 and 3 drop the colors on their faces.

 

“But I inevitably failed. I didn’t dare to disconnect the computer fearing I could erase any important work the General had been working on so… could you please tell him to check on it? Strangely, nothing seems to even mute it! Perhaps the computer has been hacked-“

 

“NAH! NO WAY” Numbuh 4 quickly stopped his train of thoughts, “it’s probably nothing, you know how Numbuh 2 is. If I’m honest with you Numbuh 275”, Wally grabbed the scientist by his shoulder and whispered to his ear, “knowing Numbuh 2, he probably was playing a video game and forgot to leave it paused it” he said while shaking his head in shame.

 

“Oh?”

 

Kuki giggled and played along with Wally’ story, “Poor Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 is super embarrassed by this new bad habit of his, playing video games during work hours! Such an embarrassment to the Global Command! Please don’t tell anyone we told you about it, Numbuh 275” she batted her eyelashes and smiled sweetly at him.

 

“Of course, General Numbuh 3! You have my word” the scientist giggled in secrecy. 

 

“Good! We’ll go now and tell Numbuh 2 to fix ‘the beeping’ right away!” Numbuh 4 said very solemnly. 

 

“Thank you, Lieutenant Numbuh 4, sorry to interrupt your breakfast with this, but it was really bothering the rest of the scientists-“

 

“NO PROBLEMO MY FRIEND! Please save us some pancakes, would ya?” Wally pushed Numbuh 275 towards the way to the cafeteria, hurrying him to leave them alone.

 

“Sure thing!” they both heard him said as he disappeared in the next corner. 

 

Once they were sure his footsteps were no longer heard, both operatives dropped their act and visibly panic.

 

“Crud! Why is she calling NOW of all the freaking time?!” Wally whispered as he and Kuki started to run back to where Numbuh 2’s office was.

 

“She never calls in the mornings, that’s very strange!” Kuki whispered back at him as they turned the corner. 

 

“Well we don’t know if it is morning in Pluto, do we? Who knows how their freaking Canadian time zone works” Wally complained upon reaching the door that led to the labs. 

 

“Shouldn’t we tell Numbuh 5 and 2 first? Numbuh Vine hasn’t called in months and they’re dying to know if Nigel is doing fine” Kuki questioned.

 

Numbuh 4 opened the door to the lab and heard immediately the blaring beeping sound coming from Numbuh 2’s computer. 

 

“Probably but…They must be at the Global Command room already finishing preparations for Numbuh 60’s pre-decommission party, so it will take them a few good 10 minutes to reach the labs and we need to stop this bloody beeping party before it stirs more unnecessary attention from other random operatives” Numbuh 4 said and hurried to the computer with Numbuh 3 following right behind.

 

 

///

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base – GKND Prisons - 06:00 am]**

 

“So he really did it, didn’t he?” Chad asked from the corner of his dark cell, sitting on the bench and under the only source of light coming from a small round window over his head. 

 

Numbuh 74.239 nodded from the other side of the laser bars, looking completely guilty at the teenager.

 

Chad let his head fall over the wall and sighed angrily, “Damn it”.

 

“I’m really sorry Chad-“

 

“Save it, Gabe, I don’t wanna hear your lies anymore” he snapped at him angrily with his teeth clenched. 

 

Numbuh 74. 239 rubbed his arm as the words of Lizzie echoed in his mind. None except Numbuh Omega seemed to be happy with him today. 

 

“Your Galactic Trial will be held after Earth is decommissioned”

 

“Whatever” 

 

Gabe looked at the teen with shocked eyes. After everything that had happened, Gabe would have expected for the ex-Supreme Leader to succumb into some form of desperation and sense of defeat, especially after the show he had put during the Planetary Decommission announcement where he once again had failed to reach out for Nigel’s common sense. But even after being beaten to a pulp and thrown into the darkest cell in the ship, Chad still looked strong and determined, even with the many scars over his skin and the tattered clothes, nothing seemed to be affecting him.

 

‘Supreme Leaders are really something else’ he thought to himself with admiration. 

 

“Well,” he cleared his throat and shoved his hand inside his lab coat pocket and took out Chad’s red iPhone. “I…I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen to you from now on so…I’m going to give you all the time you need to talk with your parents just in case-“

 

Chad stood up from the bench and slowly began to walk towards the laser bars. He stopped a few feet away from them and silently reached out his hand for Gabe.

 

Numbuh 74.239 looked at his hand and then at the guards flanking him at each side. He gulped and slowly reached out the cellphone to a safe distance so Chad was capable to take it from him. 

 

He sweated nervously for a long minute, silently begging for the teen to not do anything foolish like grabbing him by the arm and using him as a hostage or something. 

 

Chad’s hand finally moved and very slowly grabbed the phone from the scientist’s hand without much fuzz. 

 

Gabe sighed in relief as Chad turned the phone on.

 

“So…the Delta Sword, uh? I remember old Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 was obsessed with finding all the Alpha Weapons” he casually commented while he waited for his phone to get full signal.

 

Numbuh 74.239 blinked silently for a few seconds, not expecting for the teen to establish a friendly casual conversation after everything that happened.

 

Gabe smiled naively at him, “yeah! Too bad he never accomplished his dream. Aw man, I wish he was still around, now that we have found the first one we certainly will be able to find the rest of them all!”

 

“Really?” Chad arched an eyebrow at him.

 

“Yeah! Especially now that apparently the Delta Sword seemed to be reacting to something! Numbuh Omega thinks another weapon must be nearby and that’s why it’s now awake-“

 

“Oh?” Chad simply said.

 

“Yeah well, he knows these weapons better than any of us so, he must be right about it” Gabe scratched the back of his head feeling a bit silly about revealing too much to Chad.

 

But then again, there was no way for Chad to escape from this maximum secured jails, right?

 

“Say, Gabe. How good is your Spanish?” Chad suddenly changed the subject.

 

Numbuh 74.239 looked at him curiously, “pretty good, I think. I was trained in every human language for my mission on Earth. Why?” 

 

Chad chuckled and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, “Mom is asking me to write her something in Spanish, you know? They keep asking me about how is my Spanish improving and since I haven’t really gotten into any class, would you mind writing something for me?”

 

Gabe giggled, “oh sure! But shouldn’t you warn them about your trip getting…extended?” he really hated himself for doing this to an old friend.

 

“I already did and that’s why they are asking me about how much I have really improved. They probably are thinking I’m slacking or something” he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

 

He handled the phone and Gabe looked at phone’ screen. Nothing was showing in it, just a blank white screen and a blinking black typing bar.

 

“Ok? What would you want me to write?” 

 

Chad scratched his chin and took a minute to think. “Oh, I know! This will make mom laugh for sure. Write this: Uncle Antonio’s paella is the best paella in Pluto!”

 

Gabe snorted and laughed at the silly phrase, “In Pluto?”

 

“Yeah you know, Pluto is really far away from Earth so the paella is that good because it’s just ‘out of the world’ amazing? I know, it’s a bit geeky” Chad chuckled at his joke. 

 

Gabe laughed even harder and shook his head, “oh you humans have such fantastic sense of humor!” He typed the words on the phone.

 

_¡La paella de tío Antonio es la mejor paella en Plutón!_

 

Chad smirked, “now press ‘send’”. 

 

Gabe pressed the ‘send’ bottom and the text suddenly vanished from the screen.

 

He blinked again in surprise, “fascinating; this is definitely a much more advanced technology”.

 

He smiled at Chad again, “anything else?” 

 

“Nah, I’m good. I think that would be enough to not making them worry much about me” he walked away from the laser bars and sat back again on his bench with a serenade expression. 

 

“Oh? Good! Well uhm” he looked at the phone and noticed that it had turned off on its own. 

 

“I need to go back to the lab now to check on Numbuh Vine” he looked as Chad laid down on the bench with his back turned towards him. 

 

The teen yawned largely and bent his arm under his head to use as a pillow, “poor girl, I hope she’s fine. Between Nigel and Omega, I don’t know who has given her the most trouble”.

 

Gabe looked at the guards at his sides and both shrugged at him not knowing what else to do. Numbuh 74.239 put the cellphone back into his pocket and clearing his throat he wished goodnight to Chad and began to walk away. 

 

As the sound of their steps disappeared, Chad curled a fist against his heart and felt his heartbeat rapidly accelerating in anticipation. He looked up at the starry space through his cell’ small window and silently hoped for his message to arrive soon.

 

 

///

 

 

 

“Hello? Hello? Come in? Can you hear me?” Numbuh 4 pressed the computer’s bottoms not really sure what he was doing.

 

“No, no! You have to push this thingy over here!” Numbuh 3 said while pushing a bottom on the far left of the keyboard.

 

“No wait, don’t!”

 

Suddenly the computer’s screen changes and the Rainbow Monkeys' website appeared with the familiar tune of the aforementioned creatures playing in the background.

 

“Nooooo! Now, look what you did!” Numbuh 4 complained.

 

“What? I like this site!”

 

Kuki then started to sing along the song, making Wally growl in exasperation.

 

“Enough already with the rainbow crud!” Numbuh 4 pressed another bottom and effectively manage to mute the song.

 

“Come in Numbuh Vine, are you there?” he pulled down a lever in the control panel and again pressed a few bottoms to see if the Plutonian signal was still there.

 

“We love you!” Kuki randomly said to the screen.

 

Wally was now losing his patience, he knew Kuki tended to be specially space-out without a proper breakfast in her stomach so he should have expected this and yet, “You did not-this is an official into-Galapagos call!”

 

“Intergalactic!” she promptly corrected him.

 

“Argh! Whatever! You don’t say I love you-“

 

 _“Operatives?”_ a female voice suddenly interrupted them _, “are you there? Do you read me?”_

 

“Oh hi, Numbuh Vine!” Numbuh 4 suddenly changed his demeanor to a much friendly one upon finally hearing her voice.

 

Lizzie sighed from the other side of the line, she had effectively managed to hack Numbuh 74.239’s computer to make the call,  _“Numbuhs 3 and 4, greetings. Are preparations underway?”_

 

Numbuh 3 and 4 looked at each other, wondering if she was referring to the massive overhauls Numbuh 2 had been conducting on every KND treehouse on Earth. 

 

“Yup, Numbuh 2 has already checked and customized all the KND tree houses just as you requested months ago” Wally brushed his hair nervously, with a sudden bad feeling burning in the back of his head.

 

 _“Excellent”_  Numbuh Vine simply said before going silent for a long minute.

 

Kuki tilted her head curiously, “Is everything alright, Numbuh Vine? Is Numbuh 1 fine?”

 

Numbuh Vine looked away and Wally noticed sweat falling down her alien head.

 

“Alright, spit it out!” he frowned angrily, “something obviously happened”

 

_“I…I need to speak with Supreme Leader Numbuh 5-“_

 

Suddenly they all heard a door being opened from Numbuh Vine’s end of the line.

 

_“Well Nigel didn’t feel like calling home today and Chad only sent a message to his folks-WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!”_

 

Numbuh 4 and 3 instantly recognized the second voice, “that sounded like-?”

 

“Gabe?!” Numbuh 3 completed for him

 

 _“Gabe! There’s no time! They need to know now otherwise they won’t have time to evacuate EVERYBODY from the planet!_ ” Numbuh Vine defended angrily. 

 

 **“EVACUATE THE PLANET?!”**  Both Numbuh 4 and 3 exclaimed in confusion.

 

_“Lizzie, you have lost your mind?!!!! What if Numbuh Omega finds out?!”_

 

“LIZZIE?!”

 

Suddenly Numbuh Vine’s watch started to sparkle on its own, making her glitch and change into a familiar human form. 

 

_“oh for the love of- now my human disguise is acting up! Who is running the Tech Department while we were on Earth?! Numbuh Moron?!”_

 

 _“Tell me about it”_  Numbuh 74.239 answered back in annoyance.

 

_“You said the watches were fixed!”_

 

_“I KNOW AND APPARENTLY I WAS WRONG LIZZIE, GIVE ME A BREAK WOMAN!”_

 

Wally and Kuki gaped with their eyes big as plates.

 

“Holy crackers!” Numbuh 3 whispered to Numbuh 4 in utter shock.

 

“She looked better as a plant” Numbuh 4 whispered back to her.

 

 _“I HEARD THAT!”_ Lizzie yelled at them

 

 _“Lizzie!”_  Gabe tried to refocus the attention,  _“come on hurry up and finish with this call before anyone notices the signal-“_

 

 _“Then stop interrupting me so I can finish already!!! Geez!! And don’t worry, I made sure the signal is encrypted and impossible to be detected by GKND radars”_  she looked back at the screen with the confused faces of Numbuh 4 and Numbuh 3 still in it.

 

 

“So…” Wally began to say, “What do we do now?”

 

 _“Now? Now you get everyone off that planet!”_  Lizzie suddenly said.

 

Numbuh 3 and 4 looked at each other as if not understanding her, “eh…EVERYONE?”

 

 ** _“Everyone!”_**  Lizzie looked very serious at them,  _“Every kids-next-door operative, every adult, every boy, girl, man, woman, and child! Because **HE is coming** , and he’s coming soon“_ she sentenced dreadfully. 

 

“Who is coming?!” Numbuh 3 asked with fear in her voice. 

 

_“… **Galactic Emperor Numbuh Omega, Supreme Leader of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door…a Planetary Decommission Protocol has already been initiated and you guys will only have 7 days to get everyone off the planet before it’s too late**_ **-“**

 

“Hold on Lizzie, what are you talking about?! Does Numbuh 1 know about this?! Where is he?!” Wally now was alarmed. He didn’t’ understand anything of what Lizzie was saying other than it meant really bad news and his instincts immediately were telling him to ask what was his leader’s plan. 

 

Lizzie glanced at Gabe who shook his head at her. They didn’t have the time to explain to them,  _“Listen, just give these coordinates to Numbuh 5, she’ll know what to do!”._

 

Suddenly Numbuh’s 2 computer began to print a long piece of paper with strange symbols on it.

 

 

“How are we supposed to understand all these alien numbers?!” Kuki asked while tearing out the paper out of the printer

 

“Yeah, we never studied  _Canadian_  in school!” Numbuh 4 complained

 

_“There aren’t Canadian you Earth dope! That’s the galactic standard base numerical system, it combines the pictographic treatments of a galactic ancient base of-“_

 

 _“LIZZIE!”_  Gabe protested beside her, cutting off the unnecessary alien linguistic class.

 

_“RIGHT! Just give that to Abby immediately and start evacuating the planet! You have 7 days! Good luck!”_

 

And with that, the call was over and for the first time since the battle with Grandfather, Numbuh 4 and 3 found themselves completely confused and terrified.

 

 

///

 

**[GKND Research Facilities – Numbuh 74.239 Headquarters – 07:00 am]**

 

“It’s done” Lizzie sighed, a satisfied smile curled in the corner of her human lips, “Now it’s up to them to pass the message,” she told Numbuh 74.239 who kept nervously wiping out the sweat off his face.

 

“What message?” A familiar voice said from behind them.

 

Lizzie froze upon seeing the reflection on Gabe’s pale terrified expression.

 

Very slowly she turned around. Her eyes grew wide as she found the cold end of a laser water gun being aimed directly at her. 

 

The person holding the weapon was none other than Numbuh 1.

 

“You two are coming with me,” he said sternly with his new robotic voice and Lizzie knew this time she was in serious trouble.

 

 

///

 

 

**[KND Moon Base – Present time]**

 

 

“EVACUATE THE PLANET?!” Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 repeated the words aloud, not believing what she just heard.

“Wait-who is Numbuh Vine?! What the hell is going on?” Numbuh 86 exclaimed in confusion.

Wally took out a long paper from his orange jacket and handed it over to Numbuh 5, “She said to give you this”.

Abby took the paper from his hand and found estrange alien symbols written all over it. Numbuh 2 peeked over her shoulder and scratched the side of his head in confusion, “Can you read this language?”

“No” Numbuh 5 frowned in confusion. Why would Numbuh Vine send her a message in a language they didn’t know about?

“Oh and turns out Numbuh Vine was really Lizzie all along” Kuki casually mentioned.

“WHAT?! You’re kidding!” Numbuh 2 exclaimed in shock.

“No kidding! Apparently, that was her human disguise or something” Numbuh 4 said.

“WOULD ANYONE OF YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?!” Fanny shouted angrily at them.

“WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO YELL AT US?!” Numbuh 3 suddenly yelled back at her, obviously still in a very bad mood for not having any breakfast yet.

“SUPREME LEADER NUMBUH 5” Numbuh 60 rushed to the room, bullet drops of sweat were rolling down the sides of his face. “There is something wrong with the Super Big Computermabob!”

Abby looked at the almost 13-year-old general with alarm in her eyes, “the Super Big-oh no!”.

Without much ado, Abby sprinted out of the room and began to run as fast as she could towards the chamber of the Super Big Computermabob’s with Sector V, Numbuh 60 and 86 following her close.

“Ok here is the short version of the story” Numbuh 4 began to explain to Numbuh 86 and 60 while they kept running thru the Moon Base hallways, “Numbuh 1 didn’t go to study Spanish abroad, he was actually chosen to be the first KND operative to join the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door, which is pretty much the super big alien organization that established KND on Earth thousands of years ago. Ever since then, an alien operative codenamed Numbuh Vine has kept in contact with us and has been reporting to us about him and stuff”

“Galactic-Kids-Next-Door?! You can’t be serious-” Numbuh 60 started.

“WE ARE VERY SERIOUS SHUT UP!” Numbuh 3 yelled harshly at him.

“Sorry, she hasn’t had any breakfast yet” Numbuh 4 apologized to the senior operative as they all rounded the corner and startled a bunch of other operatives that were walking by.

“Anyway!” Numbuh 4 continued, “everything seemed normal until she started to request random revisions and upgrades to all of our KND tree-houses. Asking whether they were capable of functioning in space and-OH GOD WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN SOMETHING BAD WAS COMING MONTHS AGO!”

“So that’s why you have been personally visiting all the KND Sectors of the planet?!” Fanny asked Hoagie but Numbuh 2 was having trouble to form any words as he was too focused on not passing out from so much running, so he simply nodded at her.

“Now we know what was all about! GKND is apparently decommissioning Earth!” Numbuh 4 words left a few random operatives on the hallway frozen on their spots.

“But what does that even mean?!” Patton questioned as they all finally reached the tall iron doors of the Super Big Computermabob’s central brain.

 

 

///

 

 

**[KND Moon Base – Super Big Computermabob room]**

KND scientists stepped out of the way as the KND Global Command entered the large orange room. 

 

Sector V gaped as they gave a good look at the room.

 

The room where the Super Big Computermabob brain rested was located exactly at the center of the Moon Base Tree House, a symbolic location that highlighted its importance as the ‘heart’ of the entire organization. The room was as large as the Decommissioning Chamber, with huge and thick orange roots of the tree covering all the walls. For years, the Moon Base scientists had to constantly trim the roots and add several air entrances thru the walls to prevent the room from growing too warm, otherwise the risk of overheating the computer’s brain would be too high.

 

With just a quick look you could tell the famous KND Super Big Computermabob was both the most super-advanced and super antique piece of technology there was. Four groups of old computer terminals, as tall as bookshelves, were all flashing in colorful lights with its cables permanently entangled to the roots of the Moon Base. The 4 groups of terminals were all perfectly aligned and linked to two main ports: one located in on the floor, right in the center of the room, you could see a booger port console attached to the  **Kids-Next-Door Code Module**. 

 

The other port was located right at the top of the room where 4 large computer monitors were connected in the form of a cross, each one facing a different cardinal direction of the Moon Base. The tangled roots, cables and chords grew from the terminals and connected both the Code Module to the 4 Monitors in the roof and at the same time, those same roots would connect them all to the other computers that were linked to the Moon Base’s network, and these computers would be constantly spreading all information to all KND Sectors thanks to the many KND Satellites that currently were orbiting around Earth.

 

More like a heart, the computer was literally the brain of the entire organization. Any important damage inflicted to it could mean the end for the Kids-Next-Door massive communication network. 

 

And things didn’t look good in that particular room that morning. The room temperature was way too high, every small light and bottom was glowing dangerously orange, and the 4 giant monitors kept showing random alien symbols while an alarm was blaring loudly around them. KND scientist operatives were running around the room in panic, pushing bottoms and running diagnostics to all computer terminals, trying to figure out what was making the central brain go into such computed hysteria. 

 

“Supreme Leader Numbuh 5!” Numbuh 275 rushed to salute the Global Command. He was all wet in sweat.

 

“What’s the status?” Numbuh 5 quickly ordered a report. 

 

“Not good, ma’am, the computer suddenly started to flash these estrange symbols on every monitor in the Moon Base and, I think they might be showing in every KND Computer on the planet”

 

Numbuh 5 looked above to the 4 large main monitors of the Super Big Computermabob and squinting her eyes she managed to see what was flashing repeatedly on them. 

 

“Those are the same symbols Numbuh Vine sent us” Kuki suddenly said, making Numbuh 4 and 2 look at her in surprise. 

 

“Are you sure?!” Numbuh 2 asked and Numbuh 4 promptly took the paper again out of his jacket’s pocket for everyone to read.

 

Fanny and Patton came closer and noticed the similarities. 

 

“They are definitely the same” the almost teen operative admitted. 

 

Hoagie looked at Numbuh 5 with worry, “Do you think this has something to do with the Planetary Decommission?” 

 

“The what now?!” Numbuh 275 exclaimed in confusion.

 

Abby, however, began to walk towards the center of the room, “Stay put” she ordered. 

 

She walked several steps until she stood next to the Code Module and right under the cross-shaped computer monitors. She looked above and then back to where Sector V, Numbuh 60 and 86 were standing with the rest of the scientific staff. 

 

“Numbuh 5 is going to try something, keep quiet until I say so!” she yelled back at them. 

 

Hoagie, Kuki and Wally looked at each other and nodded back at her while everyone stood still in uncertainty. 

 

The Supreme Leader then took something out of one of her white shorts’ pockets: a small green notebook with the number 100 engraved on its cover.

 

“Alright, this definitely fits the ‘out of ordinary’ criteria Rachel mentioned about. Let’s see if good old Supreme Leader Numbuh 100 has an idea of what this could be”.

 

She had already read the small notebook several times after Rachel’s decommission so it didn’t take her long enough to find the pages she thought it could help her. Numbuh 100 had written down a bunch of notes regarding the Super Big Computermabob, most of them implying the computer was more alive and sentient than what people could imagine, something Numbuh 1 had too claimed not long ago. 

 

She remembered reading something curious written down on a corner of one of the pages. A secret code that only the Supreme Leader was authorized to use in case of emergency. What did the code do? It wasn’t specified, but it certainly was supposed to be only used in case of an extreme emergency.

 

And nothing was more extreme and urgent than an impending Planetary Decommission. 

 

“This is operative Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 speaking, requesting primal access to the Neural Seed Core”

 

There was a rumble and suddenly all the roots and cables in the room began to glow in red.

 

**_What is the secret password?_ **

****

The mechanic voice of the KND Computer echoed through the walls.

 

Numbuh 5 took a pause and then began to enlist. 

 

_“Beta”_

 

Upon saying the words, Hoagie saw the roots on the wall at his left turn a vibrant neon yellow color.

 

_“Gamma”_

 

The roots on the wall right at Kuki’s side suddenly turned neon blue.

 

_“Delta”_

 

Wally gaped as the roots under his feet turned then bright red.

 

_“Epsilon!”_

 

Numbuh 5 finished loudly and the roots that were over the terminals around her glowed vibrantly lime green.

 

All the roots in the room began to pulse and everybody saw the monitors suddenly turn black as if they were suddenly shut down. Then, the symbols of Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon suddenly appeared in every screen, glowing yellow, blue, red and green respectively. 

 

**_Greetings, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5, the Directive welcomes you._ **

****

The voice of the Super Big Computermabob was no longer of a single female entity, but instead now sounded more like 4 overlapping voices talking in unison. 

 

“oh my god and here I thought Nigel had lost his mind when he told us about the Super Big Computermabob being alive” Numbuh 2 whispered in fear.

 

“Hi” Numbuh 5 timidly waved at the four monitors above her head.

 

**_Please stand the nature of your emergency._ **

****

Numbuh 5 arched an eyebrow at the voices, “You tell me. You were flashing estrange symbols on the screens of every KND Computer in the network” 

 

The four symbols silently flashed consecutively for a minute.

 

**_It seems a Planetary Decommission Protocol has been initiated for Planet Earth. The galactic standard base numerical system you mention is part of the language used in ancient pre-recorded messages programmed to be sent to every KND sector with specific instructions and coordinates for the proper evacuation of every single KND Tree House on Earth._ **

****

Everybody gasped and whispered as Numbuh 5 took a minute to absorb the magnitude of the situation.

 

“Why is this happening now? Who ordered this?”

 

The four symbols silently flashed again and took them a few seconds to answer her back.

 

**_According to the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door rules, a Planetary Decommission can only be activated if a chosen galactic-level operative of the same planet determines his or her planet is beyond possible salvation and therefore is rightfully allowed to request a global decommission of all creatures that are considered ‘adults’. In Earth’s case, all humans above the age of 13 will be decommissioned without exception._ **

 

The words of the Super Big Computermabob silenced the room completely. 

 

Numbuh 86, 2, 3 and 4 turned towards Numbuh 60 who had turned pale as a paper. 

 

Abby started to breathe rapidly in stress.

 

“Wha-what? Why would anyone request something like that?!”

 

**_The rule was established 800 years ago by the current Supreme Leader of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door: Supreme Leader Numbuh Omega._ **

 

“That’s the guy Numbuh Vine was warning us about” Numbuh 4 whispered to Numbuh 2.

 

“That’s the name of that foe Sector Alpha supposedly fought thousands of years ago!” Numbuh 60 looked at 86 in total disbelief. 

 

Panic started to boil in the room.

 

“Computer…who?” Abby feared the answer, “who requested this Planetary Decommission?”

 

The realization hit Numbuh 2, 3 and 4 hard as the question left their Supreme Leader’s lips. 

 

**_According to the database, the only official Earth-galactic-level operative registered in the GKND DataBase is the operative by the name of Nigel Uno Prime, aka Numbuh 1, former leader of Sector V._ **

 

Everyone in the room gasped in shock.

 

Hoagie fell to his knees. 

 

“NO! NO WAY! NUMBUH 1 WOULD NEVER DO IT!!! IT WAS PROBABLY CHAD!!! HE WAS WITH HIM TOO” Numbuh 4 yelled at Abby. 

 

But Abby’s words were cold and emotionless, “Wally…Do you really think that 14-year-old Chad Dickson would request something like a Planetary Decommission that would specifically target him and his own kind the most?”

 

Numbuh 4 growled in frustration, refusing to believe it. 

 

“Nigel Uno…what have you done?” Abby whispered as the murmur around her grew louder.

 

Kuki turned around and noticed all the scientific operatives already in full panic mode. Shaking off the small tears in the corner of her eyes she whistled loud to gain their attention.

 

“Hey! Shut up and calm down! Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 needs to think so SHUT UP!” She ordered and effectively managed to make the room quiet again.

 

“Abby! Something must have happened to Nigel! We have to help him! You have to talk with this Numbuh Omega guy and ask him to stop the Planetary Decommission!”

 

Numbuh 3 words shook Abby out of her catatonic state. She was right! They still had time to stop this! She thanked all the Rainbow Monkey gods for giving Kuki this new super-sharp perceptive sense this last year. 

 

“Give Numbuh 5 the message sent by Numbuh Vine!” she requested. 

 

Numbuh 3 took the paper from Numbuh 4’s hand, squashed it into a paper ball and threw it to Numbuh 5.

 

Abby picked it up, unwrinkled the paper and showed it to the computer. 

 

“Computer please tell me what this message says!”

 

The 4 lights of the monitors scanned the paper in seconds. 

 

**_Those are the coordinates of the location for the Galactic Omega Flagship, currently stationed on Pluto’s Orbit._ **

 

“Computer, is it possible to stop the Planetary Decommission?” 

 

**_Only the Supreme Leaders Numbuh Omega and Alpha are authorized to request a complete cancellation of a Planetary Decommission._ **

 

Abby was silent for a second as if measuring cautiously her options. 

 

“Very well” she then turned around and looked at the operatives in the room, “as the Supreme Leader of Earth’s KND, I’ll go with Sector V to Pluto to request an audience with the Supreme Leader Numbuh Omega”

 

Everybody gasped in shock. 

 

“In the meantime, I want every KND Tree House to follow suit the evacuation protocols as programmed. GO NOW! Send the message to every sector! Send detailed reports of what happened today so everyone is fully informed about the situation. I don’t want anyone with their guard down. This is a high-level emergency situation! DO IT!” She commanded and soon every single scientific operative ran out of the room and began to yell around the Moon Base in distress. 

 

Numbuh 2, 3, 4, 60 and 86 hurriedly came closer to Numbuh 5 as she began to also walk away and out of the Super Big Computermabob room. 

 

“How long would it take us to reach Pluto, Numbuh 2?” The Supreme Leader didn’t waste time to ask. 

 

“In our fastest spacecraft? A day maybe if we try that new light-speed-super-jump system I’ve been working on. But it hasn’t been tested yet-“

 

“Well seems like NOW is the perfect time to test it, sugar-cube. You two-” she suddenly stopped and looked at Numbuh 86 and 60 very seriously in the eyes.

 

“I want you two to stay here to lead in my place while I fix this mess” 

 

“WHAT?!” Fanny stopped dead in her tracks.

 

“Are you sure?” Patton questioned her, looking down at her with doubt in his eyes, “Abby I-“

 

“I’m sorry Numbuh 60, but I’m afraid I’m postposing your decommission until this crisis is over. You are now a target to them so you’ll be safer if you remain with us. I need my two most trusted senior operatives to help me lead the army while I’m briefly absent. A global evacuation will surely cause a lot of panic and I know you two are more than capable of shaking the hysteria out of a large crowd of crying kids to put them to work in perfect synchronization.”

 

“If I fail to stop the Planetary Decommission, we are definitely going to need all those KND Sectors safely evacuated and ready to go into battle if necessary.”

 

Everyone stared at her in shock.

 

“A battle against an alien version of KND?” Fanny said incredulously.

 

“That’s right. There’s no way Numbuh 5 is letting those wackos decide what’s best for our planet, not on my watch!” Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 said with determination. 

 

Numbuh 60 seemed still doubtful but nodded solemnly at her, “I won’t let you down, Supreme Leader. I don’t care if I’m a teenager now, I’m going down with you on this”. 

 

“Good, but you better cut that broody vibe now! Freckles, you have my permission to smack his head hard if he starts to act too much like an emo teenager!” she ordered.

 

Fanny smirked and nodded, “you can certainly count on me and on Patton to lead the crying babies to safety. The Moon Base and the Kids-Next-Door will be here ready for your return, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5” the red-haired girl said with a confident grin.

 

 

///

 

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

 

 

 

**[TRANSMISION INTERRUPTED]**

**[READ CHAPTER 6 NOW ----- > ]**

 

 


	6. Delta's Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language so once again I apologize for any grammatical mistake!

**Now loading :**

** Galactic-Kids-Next-Door mission **

** Operation: ** **A.L.P.H.A.**

**Story written by Cris Carvalho**

**Check out the cover art of this chapter on my Tumblr – Twitter - IG: @KicaCris**

****

** Chapter 6: **

**Delta’s Fire**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

 

**[RESUMING TRANSMISSION]**

 

 

 

 

**[Pluto’s Orbit - Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

“This is certainly disappointing” Galactic Emperor Numbuh Omega said floating high above the command bridge with his arms tucked behind his back and looking down severely at the kneeling alien chained form of Numbuh Vine.

 

Numbuh 1 was at her side, still aiming his laser water-gun at her while Numbuh 74.239 stood next to her also in his alien form with his branch arms handcuffed behind his back. 

 

“I have good reasons to why I’m so strict with our galactic rules, you know? Rules help me maintain order by preventing insubordination. Because you know what insubordination causes? Hysteria and chaos!” he worded every word with pent up anger.

 

Lizzie and Gabe looked up at him in fear. 

 

“And that’s pretty much what your little insubordination act has apparently caused,  _Think_ ” He sighed in annoyance.

 

“Numbuh Infinity has even informed me that Earth’s KND Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 and her Global Command Team are on their way to Pluto to request an audience with me.” 

 

Numbuh 1 suddenly perked in surprise, his visors changed from red to yellow as he looked up at the Emperor in shock.

 

“Supreme Leader Numbuh 5?! Abby is the new Supreme Leader of the Kids-Next-Door?!” he exclaimed.

 

Omega arched an eyebrow at him, “you didn’t know? She’s been in command for almost a year now I believe. Your old teammates are also part of her Global Command Team. The 4 of them are expected to arrive here in a few hours.”

 

The shadow of a smile appeared on Nigel’s lips, “really?” 

 

“Yes,” Omega smirked at him, “I suppose that’s good news for you. Your old team sector will be joining you much sooner than what I anticipated it” he chuckled darkly. 

 

“However, now the real question here is what should I do with you two?” He said as he returned his attention towards Numbuh Vine and 74.239, who trembled in fear under his gaze.

 

“Gabe, I’m aware you were dragged into this situation without your consent so I won’t punish you for all this mess. However, you won’t be allowed to leave your lab for a while, I want you to concentrate and work exclusively on fixing the Delta Sword and nothing else. I will order two galactic guards to accompany you 24/7…for your own protection”.

 

Numbuh 74.239 smiled in relief, “Yes, your grace” he bowed twice, “thank you for your mercy, your grace” he looked at his roots and avoided to look him in the eye.

 

“As for you”

 

Numbuh Omega raised a hand and made Numbuh Vine float slowly towards him. She stopped inches away from him, her vines immobilized with a glowing holographic handcuff. 

 

 

“ _Think_...my dear childhood friend. I’m really sorry about this” 

 

He rose his right index claw and extended it towards her face.

 

Lizzie closed her eyes expecting a painful blow but she felt nothing for a long minute.

 

Opening her eyes again, she saw Omega’s claw had stopped millimeters away from her mouth. 

 

The tip of his claw suddenly glowed purple and swiftly he formed a holographic ‘X’ above her mouth. She blinked confusedly as the ‘X’ vanished upon going thru her face. 

 

She blinked again feeling nothing, no pain, no itching, nothing. 

 

“No more talking from now on” he suddenly said and her eyes grew large. 

 

She tried to speak, but no sound came out of her. Tears welled in her big lime eyes, as she finally understood her punishment. 

 

“You’ll get your voice back once you have learned your lesson” he waved his hand and made her float back to the floor. 

 

Nigel and Gabe looked at her with a mixture of shock and sadness brimming in their eyes. She sobbed as tears streamed down her alien face but no sound was coming from her. 

 

“I’m pretty sure Chad will enjoy your company now,  _Think_ ”

 

 

///

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base – GKND Prisons]**

Chad was startled awoken as he heard the sound of something being thrown at the floor next to him. 

 

He rose and scratched his head in annoyance, “I suppose I’m not allowed to sleep in peace anymore, am I?” he turned to look at the source of the noise and his eyes grew large.

 

“Oh my god-LIZZIE?!” he jumped out of the bench and kneeled down beside the sobbing alien form of Numbuh Vine.

 

“What happened?!” he looked up as he noticed a familiar pair of red socks and brown boots behind the laser bars, “YOU!” he growled, “what did you do to her?!”. 

 

He couldn’t see Nigel’s eyes behind the red visors, “why don’t you ask her yourself? Teenager” he said monotonously and walked away. 

 

The ex-Supreme Leader waited a minute until he was sure Numbuh 1 was no longer near and looked down at Lizzie with worry. 

 

“Hey, are you ok? What happened? Why did they put you here?” he gently lifted her round alien face to look at her better, “are you hurt?”

 

He noticed her tears and his heart dropped. She shook her head in negation but didn’t say anything else. 

 

“Come on missy, talk to me. Tell me what happened” he pressed and Lizzie cried even more. 

 

That’s when he noticed it. She wasn’t producing any sound. 

 

His eyes were big as plates, “Lizzie…can you talk? I mean, can you…try screaming at me” 

 

He saw Lizzie shut her eyes and even more, tears fell down her face but no sound came out of her. 

 

“I see” 

 

She opened her eyes and looked at him in confusion. 

 

“Ok first, let’s free your vines” he suddenly said and reaching for one of his boots he took out a estrange looking needle. 

 

“Don’t move” he ordered as the tip of the needle suddenly glowed neon yellow. 

 

Lizzie stood still as Chad took the needle and moved it closer to her handcuff. Upon touching them with the needle, the handcuffs disappeared completely. 

 

Lizzie stretched her vines and moved them softly with her eyes wide in shock. She looked up at Chad who winked at her. 

 

“Much better, right? Now, Gabe told me you guys were trained in every human language on Earth, correct?” he asked her. 

 

Lizzie nodded a few times to him, blinking curiously at him. 

 

Chad then raised his hands and began to move them in different forms. 

 

Lizzie’s eyes grew even larger in shock as she clearly read:

_‘do you know sign language?’_

 

She spun in the air happily, her tears disappearing completely. 

 

She moved her vines to answer him, [YES! How do you know it?] 

 

Chad chuckled, “I was Supreme Leader, remember? I had to learn different languages for all kind of different kids. Now please tell me what happened.” 

 

 

///

 

 

“So, Sector V is on their way here?” Chad said as Lizzie finished her story. 

 

She nodded with determination.

 

“I knew they’ve been toying with Nigel’s mind for a while but it never occurred to me that they were doing it thru his visors” he slapped his head. “He’s been using them since we got here! How permanent is the damage?” 

 

Lizzie moved her vines, [I don’t know, this prototype is new…if he’s been using them since a year ago then…] she paused and looked remorseful. 

 

 

Chad understood, “Don’t worry. We’ll fix him and your voice” he promised and she blinked at him intrigued. 

 

He looked out at the window and noticed the shadow over Pluto’s profile. “It’s been almost 24 hours now, Sector V must be already here” he whispered. 

 

He looked at Lizzie again, “A guard will come now with today’s meal so there’s no time to waste. Lizzie, would you help me?” 

 

Lizzie moved her vines again, [what are you going to do?]

 

He smirked at her, “We are going to delay the Planetary Decommission”

 

Her eyes grew wide. 

 

“And I need you to guide me to where they keep the Delta Sword”

 

 

///

 

 

 

**[McClintock High School – 24 hours later]**

Rachel T. Mckenzie twirled her pencil while boringly looking out thru the large windows of her classroom. The skies were dark that morning, with the threat of an incoming storm looming in the distance. 

 

A math test had started an hour ago and she had managed to solve it quickly in half an hour, so now she was patiently waiting for the bell to ring to give her exam back and actually start doing something at least a bit more entertaining in the next period. Sure she could have turned over the exam 15 minutes ago, but she didn’t want to make anyone feel bad just because she had managed to solve it much faster than anyone else. She had always been good with numbers all her life, it was her natural talent, so she respectfully remained quiet in her seat and let herself go numb while admiring the gloomy sky. 

 

‘I wonder if the volleyball game would get canceled because of the storm’ she questioned silently. 

 

She glanced at the clock on top of the chalkboard of the classroom and exasperatedly glared at it as if mentally ordering it to ring already. 

 

The clock continued to tick but no bell was heard. 

 

Instead, a rumble on her desk began to loudly startle everyone in the classroom. 

 

Rachel blushed as the math teacher, Abriola Stark, blinked at her in confusion. 

 

“I believe you forgot to turn off your cellphone, Mckenzie” she giggled. 

 

The blond teen felt ashamed at her clumsy mistake, “my apologies, Mrs. Stark-“

 

“Well if I didn’t know you are already finished with the exam I would be mad at you, Captain” she chuckled while the rest of the class hurriedly continued to work during the final minutes. 

 

“Again, I’m really sorry” she bowed her head.

 

“Hand over your paper and I’ll let you answer the call” the teacher kindly told her. 

 

Rachel sighed and standing up she walked to the front and handed the exam to the teacher without saying another word. 

 

“You’re a good captain, so don’t worry about it. Just remember to turn it off next time, ok?” she blinked at her reassuringly. 

 

“Yes, ma’am”. 

 

Rachel walked to her desk as Mrs. Stark announced the usual ‘final 3 minutes stretch’, making everyone groan in complain. 

 

She sat down and angrily opened her purse to pick up her blue iPhone, “I swear to God if it is mom again sending me another stupid cat video or chain message I will-“

 

She froze as her eyes grew large in alarm while reading the message on her cellphone. 

 

_¡La paella de tío Antonio es la mejor paella en Plutón!_

 

**“CRUD!”**

 

She stood up harshly, picked up her purse and ran towards the classroom’s exist at full speed.

 

“Mckenzie?!” she barely heard the teacher said before she slammed the doors open and everyone saw her disappear at light speed through the hallway. 

 

She didn’t remember the last time she had actually run at this speed,  _kids-next-door super speed_ , but she was glad she was still in the top shape probably thanks to the volleyball training she presumed. She skidded around the corner and entered another hallway, startling several teenagers as she ran past them at unnatural super speed. 

 

_“Was that Captain Rachel?”_

_“Why is the Captain running like that?”_

 

Just when she was entering the hallway where the chemistry class was being held, she saw Maurice sprung out from a pair of doors and he too started to run by her side in perfect sync. 

 

 **“CALL ACE!”**  She yelled and Maurice already had his green iPhone on his ear. 

 

They turned another corner and found the entire cheerleader squad walking in their opposite direction. They expertly jumped, shocking the girls who saw them jump high above them in slow motion just to then perfectly land on their feet to continue running completely unaffected by the obstacle.

 

_“What in the world?!”_

_“Where are the Captains going this hurriedly?!”_

 

Ace answered after the first ring,  **“WHERE ARE YOU?!”**  Maurice growled uncharacteristically furious. 

 

“ **I’M GETTING THE FALCON, MEET ME AT THE SOCCER FIELD IN 30 SECONDS!”** They heard him said just when they reached the school’s main entrance. 

 

 

///

 

 

 

**[Pluto’s Orbit]**

 

 

“So, they’re going to use some sort of ‘laser cannon’ to freeze the entire planet and everyone who is not a kid?” Wally repeated as they all gaped in awe while the giant birthday-cake-like ship of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door began to raise from Pluto’s curve, flanked by at least 20 other smaller alien ships. 

 

Abby nodded from her captain chair as she finished reading in a large holographic screen what a Planetary Decommission Protocol entitled according to the Super Big Computermabob´s database. 

 

They were all on board of an upgraded version of the KND S.P.A.C.E.R.C.H.A.S.E.R., which was slightly bigger and had Numbuh 2’s newest light-speed-super-jump rocket system (prototype) attached at each side of the ship. So far, his newest invention had worked out better than he had calculated and they all managed to reach Pluto in exactly 24 hours. 

 

During the trip to the farthest planet of the Milky Way, Sector V had used the time to learn everything there was about the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door in the Super Big Computermabob database. The data, which hadn’t been updated since the end of the 2nd Era of KND, had Numbuh Omega as the leader of the GKND 800 years ago, so they all deduced the current leader of the organization had to be someone else entirely.

 

Right?

 

 

 “Numbuh 2, where do you think a canon like that could be in that monstrous ship?” Abby suddenly asked.

 

Hoagie was sitting in the front of the ship, grasping tightly the ship’s steering wheel as they got closer to GKND’s Flagship.

 

“Well, I’m not familiar with GKND alien technology but If I had to make a wild guess,” he thought hard as his eyes scanned rapidly the structure of Omega Main Orbital Base. 

 

An upside-down dome in the south part of the ship caught his attention ”maybe there?” He pointed at it with his finger and then typed on his keyboard to make a holographic demo of the ship for everyone to see. 

 

The dome was highlighted in bright pink. “I could be wrong of course, but in my engineering opinion I think THERE would be a good place to install a canon: far away from the command bridge, hangars, engines and possibly any other important zone of the ship, especially if we’re talking about a HUGE powerful weapon capable of freezing an entire planet. Every shot fired with the canon could freeze the nearest zones around it, so the most rational thing to do would be to install it as far away as possible from any key important zones of the ship, so in the scenario of that weapon getting somehow compromised, the rest of the ship wouldn’t be really affected” he concluded as an animated demo of his explanation played for all of them to understand. 

 

Numbuh 3 gulped, “but Numbuh 5, that thing is GIGANTIC!” she exclaimed, waving her long green sleeves around the distant silhouette of the alien ship, “ and the S.P.A.C.E.R.C.H.A.S.E.R isn’t exactly made for fighting” she admitted in fear and Numbuh 4 too looked worried at their leader.

 

“We are not here to fight Kuki,” the Supreme Leader said calmly, “we’ll get there, give a good look at the situation, try to speak with whoever is in charge and maybe, just maybe, get Numbuh 1 out of there.”

 

The 3 of them looked at her in surprise, “so, we aren’t stopping the Planetary Decommission?” Numbuh 4 asked. 

 

Abby became silent, her eyes narrowing in determination as a couple of small alien ships began to approach them. She moved her right hand and grasped the smooth surface of a familiar pair of black sunglasses that had been resting inside her short’s pocket for almost 1 year and a half. 

 

/// 

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Hangars]**

 

 

The door of the S.P.A.C.E.R.C.H.A.S.E.R opened slowly and a powerful white light blinded them for a brief moment. 

 

They blinked a couple of times until their vision started to clear. 

 

The hangar was spacious and full of thousand of smaller alien ships. In front of them, a group of around 100 armored alien soldiers, all of different animal races, stood firm in a perfect square. 

 

They spotted good old Numbuh Infinity, standing in front of the group, with a bouquet of alien flowers in his hands. 

 

“Welcome to the Omega Main Orbital Base, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5 and Global Command Sector V! We are honored by your visit. Please drop your weapons and follow me”

 

///

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

Abby, Hoagie, Wally, and Kuki gaped in awe as they entered the spacious (and empty) Command Bridge of GKND. They could see Pluto and the rest of the planets of the Milky Way thru the large crystal walls that surrounded them.

As they walked further inside the room, they felt their hearts drop to their stomachs as they noticed a figure standing alone in the middle of the chamber. A familiar bald head they all had missed terribly.

“NUMBUH 1!!!!!!!!!” they shouted and sprinted towards him.

Numbuh Infinity stood behind and saw with a content smile how they all threw themselves and hug-piled Nigel in seconds. They laughed, cried and bone crushed him in a tight group hug, not believing the moment.

Nigel sobbed with tears streaming below his yellow visors, “I missed you all so very much!” he hiccupped against the shoulders of Numbuh 5 and 2, while Numbuh 3 and 4 hugged him from his waist, “I’m so happy you’re finally here!”

They all stopped hugging him for a second to look at him at his eyes thru the visors.

“I heard you’re all the new KND Global Command! I’m so freaking proud!-Oh my god Hoagie you’re taller than me now! Kuki you cut your hair and Wally you finally got rid of that awful fish ball style…Abby-“

He swallowed as he noticed Rachel’s old Supreme Leader helmet now rebranded with the number 5, “You’re Earth’s Supreme Leader now!!!! I can’t imagine anyone more suited for such a position than you!”

Abby blushed slightly as a couple of tears fell down her cheeks.

“You-you haven’t changed much” Numbuh 2 sniffed.

“I actually was expecting you to have hair by now” Numbuh 3 giggled.

“Same-old-same Numbuh 1 but with cooler space sunglasses” Wally brushed his tears off and playfully punched him in the arm.

“Numbuh 5 is happy to finally see you safe and sound, boss. Our cooler new jobs aren’t as fun without ya”.

Nigel chuckled and brushed his tears off his cheeks, “I know…I feel the same” he laughed, “but everything will be fine now! You’re here, with me, we’ll be unbeatable again. You’re safe now!” he sighed.

Numbuh 5, 4, 3 and 2 looked at each other in confusion.

“What do you mean with ‘we are safe’?” Numbuh 2 asked.

Then, Nigel’ smile suddenly disappeared and he became rigid.

Hoagie, Wally, Kuki, and Abby saw as the color of his visor changed from yellow to red, and his face turned emotionless. He then turned his back to them and suddenly kneeled.

“Galactic-Kids-Next-Door rules!” they all heard Numbuh Infinity suddenly shout from behind them and turning around they all saw him too now in a kneeling position.

“What the?-“ Numbuh 4 began to say until they all felt the wind move inside the chamber.

“Such a lovely reunion”

Numbuh 5, 4, 3 and 2 looked ahead again towards the same direction as Nigel and then they saw it.

A estrange looking alien, floating above them, wearing a dark armor with the insignia of Omega glowing on his chest.

“Oh my god…” Numbuh 2 was breathless in shock.

“That symbol-it can’t be!” Numbuh 4 trembled.

“But-but it’s impossible!” Numbuh 3 gasped with her hands covering her mouth.

Numbuh 5 straightened herself and looked straight to the lilac eyes of the alien who began to descend towards her.

He looked exactly like the illustrations she saw in that old book that cadet Trixy Jhonson was reading a week ago.

Omega landed gracefully in front of Numbuh 5 and right next to the kneeling form of Numbuh 1. Abby was having trouble forming any words as her brain tried to understand the creature in front of him. His skin looked like the starry night, dark and full of freckles that glowed like stars. His large lilac eyes contrasted over his very dark skin and his head, or was it his hair? Floated and moved like flaming purple nebula.

She had never imagined someone like him to exist, and yet here he was, the oldest legend of the Kids-Next-Door in full flesh.

“I’m so honored to finally meet you, Abigail Lincoln, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5. Numbuh 1 has spoken highly about you”.

“I’m Numbuh Omega, Galactic Supreme Leader and Emperor of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door.”

 

///

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base – GKND Prisons]**

 

An armored white mouse alien walked down the large corridor with two silver trays in his hands: one with a small bowl full of watered soil and another one with a cheeseburger. He huffed angrily as he passed various cells with adult alien prisoners groaning at his feet. Why did they had to ask him to feed the prisoners right now when Earth’s KND committee had just arrived to meet with their emperor? He had been curious to see other infected humans ever since the bald one had joined them a year ago, but he was now fearing to miss his opportunity entirely thanks to one stupid infected teenager and a gone-crazy plant operative. 

 

He sighed as he finally reached his destination. He used his long pink tail to retrieve a security card key from his pants’ pocket and pass it through a scan reader on the wall. The neon green laser bars that were blocking the entrance of the cell disappeared instantly. 

 

“Alright you two, you know the drill. Stand up, hands over your heads and face facing the wall” he said while entering the room. 

 

He saw the blond teen already facing the wall with his hands raised. 

 

But there were no signs of the other prisoner. 

 

He became alarmed as he looked to his right and then to his left and found none else besides the teenager. 

 

“What the-?! Where is Numbuh Vine?!” he exclaimed in panic without noticing 5 vines moving over his head. 

 

Chad smirked as he heard the trays fall soundly on the floor and turning around he saw the mouse guard completely trapped under Lizzie’s vines. 

 

The red-eyed alien white mouse tried to fight himself free from the iron grasp of Numbuh Vine but then stopped completely and passed out with Chad’s single strong hit on the back of his head. 

 

Lizzie let the guard fall unconsciously on the floor, took the discarded key card and handed it to Chad.

 

She moved her vines for Chad to read, [let’s go to the labs!]

 

Chad nodded and with all his strength he sprinted fast and out of the cells with Lizzie flying fast right next to him.

 

 

///

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

Abby’s eyes glanced briefly at the kneeling figure of Numbuh 1 and then back at Numbuh Omega’s lilac dangerous eyes. 

 

He looked behind her, to the three other human operatives in the back. 

 

“Global Chief of 2x4 Engineer, Hogarth P. Gilligan, aka operative Numbuh 2.”

 

“Global Supervisor of the KND Hospital and Medical Staff, the always cheerful Kuki Sanban, aka operative Numbuh 3.”

 

“And Second Global Chief of the Decommission Squad, Wallabee Beetles, also known as operative Numbuh 4.”

 

Hoagie, Wally, and Kuki frowned back at him, not liking one bit the fact he seemed to be already very well informed about them.

 

“The famous Sector V of Earth’s KND is finally reunited! What a splendid day! Don’t you think, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5?”

 

Abby remained silent. 

 

Omega titled his head at her, “to be honest, my lady, I wasn’t expecting to meet you so soon but I understand perfectly why you came so fast to have an audience with me after the inconvenient caused by my subordinate. I humbly apologize for the trouble it must have certainly caused.”

 

Numbuh 5 nodded very slowly, now worried about Lizzie’s well being, “I see. It did cause some unwanted commotion”.     

 

Numbuh Omega smiled, “well I guess it doesn’t matter much now. What is done is done!” he grinned excitedly like a cat. “I’m confident your soldiers will accomplish the evacuation without much trouble. Your Tree Houses will be a marvelous addition to our fleet, with proper modifications of course since I don’t believe they’ll be able to resist a serious battle in space but-

 

“Supreme Leader Numbuh Omega” Numbuh 5 suddenly interrupted him, earning a small muffled gasp from Numbuh Infinity behind her. 

 

Omega arched an eyebrow as Abby cleared her throat, “my apologies, I didn’t mean to interrupt you so rudely”. 

 

Numbuh Omega relaxed his brow and dropped his smile, “yes, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5?”

 

Numbuh 2, 3 and 4 gulped and listened.

 

“I…Numbuh 5 is not very well educated on the matters of the Galactic-Kids-Next-Door, you see? So you must understand that I’m still trying to figure out this whole situation with the sudden decision of decommissioning our planet” she explained eloquently. 

 

Numbuh Omega grinned at her, “what is it that you don’t understand if may I ask? Your Earth-galactic-level operative and Sector Leader, Numbuh 1 here, reached the conclusion on his own that Earth has gotten too infected with the virus of adulthood after reading the most recent census of Earth’s general population”.

 

Numbuh 5, 4, 3 and 2 looked surprised. 

 

“The what?” Numbuh 2 asked, looking at Numbuh 4 and 3 who shrugged at him unsure. 

 

Abby furrowed her brow in disbelief, “you think adulthood is a virus?” 

 

“It’s been confirmed by our galactic scientist a long time ago. We have been looking for its cure ever since the fall of my dear sister, Numbuh Alpha. We decommission planets so we can cure them later once we find the cure” Omega explained with a sinister grin.

 

Abby frowned angrily at him, “are you serious?!” 

 

Numbuh Omega grinned even larger, “Of course! But Nigel has promised me that he is capable of finding the cure with the help of his trusted team sector, right my boy?” 

 

Numbuh 5 saw Nigel rise again very slowly. He straightened himself up and made a military salute to the Emperor, “yes my emperor, we won’t fail you!”

 

Kuki covered her mouth with her hand as Wally growled next to her.

 

“YOU MONSTER! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!” Hoagie roared fully angered now. 

 

Numbuh 5 glared at the emperor under the shadow of her Supreme Leader’s helmet, “what I’m seeing is an operative who has lost control over his own will” she said lowly.

 

Numbuh Omega smirked darkly, “I prefer to think he has a much clearer mind now”.

 

“Emperor Numbuh Omega” Numbuh 5 was now gritting her teeth, “I very politely request to reconsider the Planetary Decommission -“

 

“Why?” he cut her, tilting his head curiously at her but still grinning at her darkly.

 

“Because” Abby tried to calm down her racing heart, “such a massive measure will bring us equally massive complications for us-“

 

“Like…?” Omega teased with fun.

 

Numbuh 5 was losing her patience with this guy, “Sir, if you decommission everyone above the age of 13, kids will be the most affected, especially smaller infants! Who is going to take care of all them?!”

 

Numbuh Omega rolled his eyes at her, “you’re making a fuzz over nothing dear Numbuh 5, this is actually good news. Younger cadets are much easier to mold, you’ll see, they will be even better soldiers than your current ones. But answering your question, we will gladly train your medical staff in the ways of changing diapers and feeding babies, it’s not that hard-“

 

“Sir, that’s not going to work. My oldest brother has babies of his own and-“

 

“And you also have an older sister who happens to be the current Prom Queen of the Teenagers, correct?”

 

Abby froze completely caught off guard. 

 

“I-yes that’s correct, but what does that have anything to do with this?”

 

“Well, I thought you will be especially glad to be rid of the only serious thread the Kids-Next-Door currently have after Father’s sudden retirement.”

 

Hoagie sensed that must have strung a chord in the wrong way as Numbuh 5 narrowed her eyes even more, “We have the teenagers under control, they are not a threat to us”. 

 

“Under control? That’s not how I perceived it after the failed Treaty. The previous Supreme Leader was actually plotting a real negotiation with them even.”

 

Abby didn’t answer to that and it made Numbuh Omega arch a curious eyebrow. 

 

“Oh…you know about it,” he said and Nigel briefly seemed to perk in surprise. 

 

Numbuh 5 shifted a bit, “Yes… ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 362 told me about it when she trained me to take her place. She admitted to have under-estimated the Teens’ Prom King.”

 

Numbuh Omega glanced smugly at Numbuh 1, who was frowning angrily behind his red visors.

 

“We learned from that mistake and that’s why I’m telling you we have the situation with the teens under control-“

 

 

“Alright then let me propose a deal with you, Supreme Leader Numbuh 5” Omega chuckled with an idea. 

 

“I’ll agree to cancel the Planetary Decommission of Earth on one condition.” 

 

Sector V perked in attention, finally sensing some small light of hope with the negotiations.

 

“Capture and bring me your sister” he suddenly said.

 

“WHAT?!”

 

Omega grinned largely, “and while you’re at it, bring me the Steve and his Teen Captains, ex-Numbuh 362 and ex-Numbuh 9! Finish the war with the Teenagers and turn the balance in favor of KND. That’s my condition.” 

 

 

A long minute of silence passed. 

 

Numbuh 5 sighed in resignation. “No,” she said firmly and angrily. 

 

 

Numbuh Omega giggled, and Abby realized he had been expecting her answer all along.

 

“Very well, then I’m afraid the decision is unchanged. Earth will be decommissioned in 6 days as scheduled” he sentenced.

 

Abby curled her fists and thought her next words cautiously, “then sir, please allow Numbuh 1 to return with us to the Moon Base so he can help us with the evacuation-“

 

“Return?” Omega laughed loudly, “My dear Numbuh 5, forgive me, you must have misunderstood.” 

 

He began to float again with a dark grin on his features, “you and your team will resume your duties under Numbuh 1’s command starting today. I believe there’s no need for a Global Command or a Supreme Leader for Earth anymore”. 

 

Omega snapped his fingers and Numbuh 1’s visors suddenly glowed neon red as two purple laser guns materialized in his hands. 

 

“But first, let’s see if you’re really worth it of joining us”.

 

 

///

 

 

**[GKND Research Facilities – Numbuh 74.239 Headquarters]**

 

Gabe looked over his shoulder to Numbuh 9L and the lizard guard standing side by side the labs’ main entrance.

“Do you guys know any jokes? Any funny story to share?” he tried to make conversation as boredom was becoming a little too overwhelming.

The lizard guard didn’t even seem to have acknowledged him while Numbuh 9L’s feline emerald eyes looked sad as she shook her head in negation.

He sighed and returned his attention to the rusty piece of metal lying on his table.

“This should be the most important project of my young alien carrier and yet…” he looked sadly at the remains of the Delta Sword as Numbuh 9L came closer and sat next to him.

“Well at least I have you, right Numbuh 9L?” he said and looked again at Numbuh 9L’s apologetic expression. As the weaponry expert, she was, she had been ordered to help and guard Numbuh 74.239 while he worked on fixing the legendary weapon.

Gabe’s mind drifted back to Lizzie and her willingness to risk everything for her surrogate home at Earth.

She had been so brave.

Numbuh 9L perked in surprise as she noticed the symbol of Delta faintly pulse.

“Hey Numbuh 9L” Gabe suddenly asked, “do you regret having requested for the decommission of your planet?”

The giant purple alien cat’s eyes went large, taken aback by the question. She lowly whined in response with her ears lowered.

Gabe understood.

“I did something terrible…to Lizzie, to Nigel…to Earth…to my family on Earth…all because I was too afraid to voice my mind” he murmured and the symbol of Delta pulsed again.

“Lizzie however, lost her voice while attempting to save Earth…she’s really brave”.

Again, the hilt of the sword pulsed and Numbuh 9L arched a bushy eyebrow curiously at it.

“I want to be brave” Gabe suddenly felt a warm rush of courage in his chest.

Numbuh 9L felt it too and she growled in affirmation besides him.

“You know what? I’m gonna do it!” he looked at Numbuh 9L with a newfound resolution, “I’m gonna go out there and tell Numbuh Omega to stop this injustice! I’m gonna free Nigel from those stupid nasty visors! I’m not gonna be a coward anymore, I’m-“

They both suddenly jumped in surprised upon seeing the unconscious form of the lizard guard of the entrance being thrown hard against the wall in front of them.

“Wha-what happened?” Gabe and Numbuh 9L turned towards the door to find the source of the ruckus.

They both smiled brightly as Numbuh Vine and Chad looked angrily at him.

“LIZZIE! CHAD! Oh, thank goodness-Woah!”

Lizzie launched herself towards him and Numbuh 9L and wrapped them as tightly as possible with her vines.

“Ouch! Hey! I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! You were so right all along” Gabe spoke sincerely with his voice broken with remorse.

Lizzie looked at him quizzically.

“I was a coward…we were cowards,” he said as he looked up at Numbuh 9L who whined sadly in agreement. “But not anymore! You have inspired me, Lizzie!”

Chad noticed the hilt of the Delta Sword pulse repeatedly behind them and smiled knowingly.

“I won’t be Numbuh Omega’s puppet anymore! I won’t let him pay his anger with Earth! There must be something we can do to stop him!” Lizzie didn’t understand what was happening to him as he whirled under her vines with a new estrange energy.

“You can’t stop him” Chad’s voice suddenly froze them.

He walked slowly towards the table and as he grew closer to it, the remains of the Delta Sword started to turn brightly redder.

Numbuh 74.239 and Vine’s eyes grew larger in surprise as flames started to engulf the piece of metal completely.

Chad stopped right in front of it, the flames reflecting on his brown eyes.

“But we can…”

“Gabe…give me my phone” he extended a hand towards him without tearing his eyes off the burning piece of metal in front of him.

Numbuh 74.239 looked at Lizzie and she shrugged back at him. He whirled and managed to take out the red phone from one of his pockets.

“Here!” he threw it and Chad caught it perfectly.

“What are you going to-?” Gabe and Lizzie seemed to think at the same time just as Chad took the phone, twirled it and face it directly in front of the flames.

“I BELIEVE IN ALPHA!” He shouted loudly.

And the entire floor of the ship was suddenly engulfed in a blinding red light.

///

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

“SNAP OUT OF IT NIGEL! PLEASE” Kuki begged as Wally and Abby jumped in the air and launched themselves towards Nigel, kicking him hard in the stomach at the same time and throwing him hard to the other side of the room.

 

“Damnit what did you do to him?!” Hoagie panted looking at the laughing floating figure of Numbuh Omega in the air. 

 

The dust cleared and Numbuh 1 stood up again with still an unreadable expression on his features. Omega snapped his fingers one more time and two new purple holographic guns appeared on Nigel’s hands. 

 

“Come on, Sector V. Show me what you’re made of,” the emperor said darkly and Nigel jumped ahead towards Numbuh 4.

 

“WALLY!” Kuki screamed as Nigel’s punch slammed Wally’s face hard, knocking a tooth out of him and sending him rolling backward to the windows. 

 

Numbuh 3 ran to his side, “Wally! Wally answer me!” 

 

Numbuh 4 spat and stood up again, “I’m ok” he grumbled to her. 

 

Then they all saw Nigel dash again but now towards Numbuh 2. 

 

Hoagie trembled in fear while grabbing on to his broken arm. He wasn’t a combat expert so he had been rapidly hurt when the fight broke out. He glared and growled in frustration as he saw in slow motion his best friend coming at him to surely finish him. 

 

“Nigel please, It’s me, your pal Hoagie. We’re best friends! Please don’t do this!” he begged. 

 

But Nigel didn’t seem to even slow down. 

 

Hoagie closed his eyes and waited for the blow when suddenly Numbuh 5’s fast-flying kick slammed hard on Numbuh 1’s side and effectively threw him away from him. 

 

Numbuh 2 let out a relieved breath as he looked at a very pissed Numbuh 5 land expertly on her feet. 

 

She growled in frustration as Numbuh 1 once again stood up like a freaking unbeatable zombie. She gave a good long look at him and noticed that he had scratches all over his arms and legs, and blood was running down the left corner of his mouth but didn’t seem affected by any of it. 

 

He wasn’t feeling anything.

 

He had been transformed in a mindless fighting toy for Numbuh Omega.

 

Omega giggled, “we can do this all day” he mockingly sang. 

 

Abby sighed in defeat, “alright…you win…please just…just let him go…we’ll do whatever you want us to do” she said completely heartbroken. 

 

Numbuh 2, 3 and 4 silently looked at her in sorrow, not knowing what else to do.

 

Numbuh 5 felt tears starting to form in the corner of her eyes as she thought about her friends and all the rest of the Kids-Next-Door waiting for their return…her older sister, her parents…she didn’t know how to help them, she had been chosen by Rachel T. Mckenzie to take her place as Supreme Leader and yet here she was…hopelessly giving up.

 

She looked up at Omega quizzically.

 

“Why are you doing this? What did we do to you?” she asked him. 

 

Omega dropped his smile and silently glared back at him in disgust. 

 

“I’m finishing what my sister started,” he said simply. 

 

But Abby didn’t flinch under his threatening eyes as the image of an innocent Trixy Jhonson flashed in her mind. Something in her chest began to burn, “this is not what Numbuh Alpha wanted”.

 

She looked at the cold robotic form of Numbuh 1 as courage flared in her heart and then glanced back at Numbuh 2, 3 and 4 and smirked.

 

“Alpha defeated you thousand of years ago!” her insolent smirk threw Omega off his confident stance. 

 

“And we will defeat you again!” Numbuh 5 said as Wally, Kuki and Hoagie joined her with renewed courage. 

 

Omega growled in annoyance.

 

“You know what? I changed my mind… I don’t think Numbuh 1 really needs you for his mission” He chuckled darkly and Numbuh 1 glowed in purple power with his fury.

 

“I’m done with this boring game. Finish them Nige-”

 

The floor under him suddenly trembled and a column of fire burst out of the floor to the ceiling. 

 

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

 

A powerful wave threw everyone in the room flying to the walls and even Numbuh Omega was forced to land on the floor.

 

“What’s going on?!” Numbuh Omega looked confused at the massive column of fire that had pierced thru the Command Bridge not understanding what was happening. A blaring alarm suddenly started to echo thru the ship. 

 

**_Warning! Fire inside the ship! Warning!_ **

****

The computer repeated on a loop.

 

Omega glared daggers at Numbuh 5 and Sector V as they all shook themselves out of the stupor, “what did you do?!” 

 

He looked then furiously at Numbuh Infinity who had turned into his weasel alien self upon hitting the walls, “I thought I ordered you to strip them off all their weapons!” 

 

Numbuh Infinity looked at the column of fire in terror, “I did! They don’t have any weapons with them!” he defended. 

 

Numbuh Omega looked again at Sector V who were just as confused as him. They have been fighting against Numbuh 1 completely unarmed until now.

 

“Then…what is this?” he froze as he sensed something.

 

Something he hadn’t sensed in a thousand years.

 

This fire was no ordinary fire. It felt familiar.

_‘It can’t be!’_

 

He then noticed it. The fire was powerful and overwhelming but wasn’t burning anyone in the room despite its magnitude. 

 

“You have been unfairly playing this game alone for far too long, Numbuh Omega!” a voice said angrily from within the fire.

 

Everyone’s eyes grew wide in shock as a shadowed figure emerged from the flames. 

 

Omega gritted his teeth and hissed in fury, “NO! YOU CAN’T BE-!!!!” 

 

Numbuh 5, 4, 3 and 2 gapped as the fire suddenly stopped and they saw a familiar face, once again dressed in red, sporting a new dark silver armor with a spectacular long sword made of fire blazing with renewed life on his right hand. The symbol of Delta glowed vibrantly red on his belt and the hilt of the sword. 

 

“Oh…my…god” Numbuh 3 exclaimed as everyone smiled in excitement upon recognizing the person. 

 

Ex-Supreme Leader Numbuh 274, Chad Dickson stood tall and fearless, glaring defiantly at the child emperor with powerful red eyes. 

 

_“I’m the knight of fire, guardian of youth’s courage, the brave flaming sword!”_

**_“I’m Numbuh Delta!”_ **

_“And I believe in Numbuh Alpha with all my blazing heart!”_

 

The Emperor trembled with fury, his white pupils sharp as an angered tiger. He growled and the purple diamond on his armored chest started to glow with power.

 

“You!!! A teenager!!!...YOU???!!!!” He shouted in a mix of confusion and disgust. He pulled a long purple bolt from the glowing diamond on his chest. The bolt sparkled and morphed in a few seconds in the shape of a sword.

 

Chad grabbed his long fire sword with both hands and took a defensive stance as the sword in Numbuh Omega’s left hand became fully materialized and solid. 

 

He aimed his weapon to Chad in an elegant sword fighting stance. The saber sword had a black blade, dark as a black hole with small stars and nebulas dancing over its surface. 

 

“That sword must be more damaged than what I thought if it accepted your filthy traitor teenager DNA to be the new Numbuh Delta!!! I will destroy it with you!!” he snarled and suddenly disappeared. 

 

Sector V and Numbuh Infinity gasped as Omega suddenly re-appeared again, floating above the teen and aggressively swung his black laser saber against ex-Supreme Leader, but Chad had somehow read his movement in time and effectively blocked his attack with the Delta Sword. 

 

Omega went wide-eyed in surprise, his sword jolted angrily against Chad’s. 

The teen chuckled, “I’ve been trained to fight you ever since I got into the Kids-Next-Door, you BRAT! Your tricks won’t work with me!” he planted his feet firmly and pushed Omega away from him with the weight of his blade. 

 

Omega blinked in confusion at the statement, “Ever since-?” the Emperor growled in annoyance. 

 

“SECTOR V! OVER HERE!” 

 

Abby, Hoagie, Kuki, and Wally turned their attention away from Chad and Omega and looked for the source of the voice calling them.

 

They recognized the human form of Numbuh 74.329 sitting on the back of a giant purple alien cat who had the unconscious form of Numbuh 1 hanging from his hoodie between her fangs. 

 

“Gabe?!”

 

Then Lizzie floated from behind him. 

 

“Lizzie!” they all exclaimed with relieve. 

 

“We have to get out of here NOW! Hop on Numbuh 9L’s back come on!” he pressed urgently. 

 

“But Chad-!” Numbuh 5 turned again and saw Omega jump again to clash his sword against Chad’s. 

 

And Chad briefly glanced at Abby “GO! NOW!” he ordered. 

 

For a brief second Numbuh 5 sworn to have seen him younger, dressed in red and green instead with the plate of Numbuh 274 on his chest. 

 

She smirked and tipped her red cap under her Supreme Leader’s helmet in respect. 

 

“Let’s get out of here!” She said and ran towards the purple cat. 

 

“NO!” Numbuh Omega shouted and jumped in her direction. 

 

“Oh no, you won’t!” Chad spun his sword upside down and stabbed the floor hard with it with the blade going deep under his feet. Fire veins cracked and extended and suddenly a ring of fire rose from the floor, blocking Numbuh Omega’s path.

 

Numbuh 9L jumped thru the hole created by Chad’s entrance and fell down with Sector V, Gabe, and Lizzie on her back.

 

 

///

 

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Hangars]**

 

They have been screaming for a long minute straight until Numbuh 9L landed softly on the floor. 

 

Sector V breathed in relief. 

 

“Good kitty!” Kuki celebrated happily, earning a purr from Numbuh 9L. 

 

Gabe looked at the chaos around them as the previous awakening of the Delta Sword had created a massive wildfire that had rapidly spread from the Labs’ floor up until the hangars, creating the perfect distraction as everyone was too busy trying to put the fire off.    

 

“Where’s your ship?!” he questioned urgently, noticing some of the GKND ships in the hangar also burning. 

 

“THERE,” Numbuh two pointed at the KND S.P.A.C.E.R.C.H.A.S.E.R. stationed a few meters in front of them.

 

Gabe blinked and looked at Numbuh 2 in disbelief, “Really? Couldn’t you have brought something a little more ARMED?!” 

 

“Well excuse me! At least we brought something to escape FAST!”

 

“HEY! STOP THEM! DON’T LET THEM ESCAPE!”

 

They all saw the weasel form of Numbuh Infinity yell to some soldiers around him. He had apparently followed them when they jumped thru the hole in the Command Bridge Room. 

 

“LET’S GO!” Numbuh 5 ordered and Numbuh 9L ran fast to the ship as lasers were fired at them. 

 

“Come on, kitty! You can do it!” Wally chanted as she dodged the shots while running. 

 

Hoagie took out a small remote control and pressing a bottom he opened the door of the S.P.A.C.E.R.C.H.A.S.E.R. 

 

Numbuh 9L gave a long jumped for it but then got hit on her right tight. 

 

She roared in pain but managed to slide right into the ship, making everyone fall off her back once inside. 

 

“Numbuh 9L!” Gabe and Lizzie ran to her side as Numbuh 2 went for the ship’s piloting seat. 

 

He swiftly sat and turned the engines on, just when Numbuh 5 saw GKND soldiers running at them.

 

“PUNCH IT NUMBUH 2!” She commanded and Hoagie pulled both engine levers at once, making the ship rock and fly away from the hangar at full speed. 

 

But then the ship stopped abruptly a mile away from the ship, and they all heard the dying sound of the engines. 

 

“No, no, no, no, no, no!!!!” Numbuh 2 exclaimed as he pressed the bottoms on the control panel. 

 

“What’s wrong?!” Numbuh 4 exclaimed.

 

“The engines are not responding!!! I TOLD YOU THIS SYSTEM WAS A PROTOTYPE!!!” 

 

They all panic as GKND ships started to fly off the hangar towards them. 

 

“We can’t escape!” 

 

///

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

Numbuh Omega turned towards Chad with a large grin as he saw Sector V’s attempt to escape fail completely. 

 

“Well, I have to admit I haven’t been this entertained in centuries” he aimed his saber sword at Chad. “But as usual, I win! You fought good Chad, I’ll give you that, but you must have known you alone cannot defeat me” the emperor chuckled and rejoiced in his apparent victory. 

 

But then, the symbol of Delta suddenly began to glow and Chad smirked. 

 

“Who said I was fighting alone?” 

 

Upon saying those words the entire ship suddenly shook violently and the lights went out. 

 

**_Warning! Hostile attack! Warning!_ **

 

Numbuh Omega lost his balance as another blow suddenly made the entire ship rock again. 

 

**_Warning! Critical Damage! Critical Damage!_ **

 

Omega stood up shaking the dizziness off his head, “what now-?” he froze as he looked at the windows behind Chad with his eyes large. 

 

///

 

**[Pluto’s Orbit]**

 

Sector V, Gabe, Lizzie, and Numbuh 9L stared in awe as the shadowed silhouette of a large ship suddenly appeared in the distance, firing powerful yellow laser beams towards the GKND flagship.

The shots hit the lower part of the ship twice and effectively managed to blew up the upside-down dome that Numbuh 2 had previously conjectured to be the location of the GKND Decommission Canon.

Their eyes grew even larger as the ship got closer to them.

It was as large as a commercial plane, its wings and body made of some silver and gold metal, with 4 windows shaped like eyes on the cockpit head, several small lights glowing yellow, blue, red and green all over the fuselage, and you could clearly see under his wings two very large scary laser cannons glowing yellow with electric power.

As the ship flew above them, they gasped in shock as they all saw the symbol of Alpha engraved on its chest.

 

 

///

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

“The Falcon Alpha?!”

Omega breathed as he saw the large ship sprung his wings large and menacingly behind Chad’s back, the laser canons angrily glowed with electric yellow power.

He looked at Chad as the realization hit him like cold water and Chad glared back at him with the Delta Sword flaming wildly and glowing brightly red.

“We kicked you out of this galaxy once, and we’ll do it again!”

And everything went blindly yellow.

///

“OH MY GOD!” Numbuh 2 exclaimed as two large yellow laser beans went thru the Command Bridge and a big cloud of smoke shielded the view of the upper part of the ship.

“Ahm…wasn’t Chad just there?” Numbuh 4 said with worry.

And then they saw someone jumped out of the windows and float away from the debris unharmed.

“CHAD!!!” They all exclaimed while looking at the teenager ‘swimming’ thru space while holding his breath.

“That’s one crazily brave ex-Supreme Leader right there” Abby chuckled.

“We have to help him! He’s going to pass out without air!” Kuki exclaimed.

“But we can’t move!” Hoagie reminded her.

They saw the Falcon Alpha move again and flew right above the teenager. A door under its belly opened and two figures extended their arms towards him.

Sector V, Gabe, and Lizzie gasped upon recognizing the two familiar faces of Rachel and Maurice.

“Hehehe, I knew it” Numbuh 5 chuckled knowingly as the ex KND operatives grabbed Chad by his arms and pulled him inside the ship safely.

GKND alien ships appeared from within the smoking large birthday cake shaped ship and started to shot furiously at the Falcon Alpha but the legendary spaceship seemed to have a power shield protecting it.

The Falcon Alpha’s engines began to charge with power and moved towards the S.P.A.C.E.R.C.H.A.S.E.R.

Two large claws emerged from the cargo bay door area of the ship and securely grabbed the small KND spacecraft.

The thin body of the ship screeched in complains under the weight of the Falcon Alpha’s claws.

“Hey! Watch it, would ya?!” Numbuh 2 protested just as the engines of the larger bird-shaped aircraft turned on fire and then flew away from Pluto at full speed.

///

 

 

**[Omega Main Orbital Base - GKND Command Bridge]**

 

 

Omega growled with utter fury as he saw the silhouette of the Falcon Alpha disappear in the distance. 

 

Pieces of glass and metal floated around him as the alarms of his ship continued blaring. 

 

**_Warning! Critical Damage! Critical Damage!_ **

 

His body trembled, his nebula flame hair was blazing wildly as his mind ran at full speed while analyzing everything that had just happened. 

 

“My emperor!” Numbuh Infinity flew towards him with an oxygen tank attached to a helmet on his head. 

 

“What’s the damage?!” Omega hissed without turning to look at him.

 

Infinity visibly trembled, “most of the lower floors had been completely destroyed, the labs, the prison cells, half of the hangar and…the Decommissioning Canon is gone…” he whispered the last part. 

 

Numbuh Omega roared loud with a dangerous black and purple aura exploding electrically around him. 

 

Infinity rolled his weasel body in the form of a cinnamon roll and covered in fear until the emperor stopped.

 

The eternally young alien breathed in a few times as if trying to calm down his temper and then spoke again severely. 

 

“Call everybody, all my troops and every single one of our armies spread across the universe to come here to the Milky Way, Earth has become a top priority now…” 

 

Numbuh Infinity was shocked by the magnitude of the order but nodded obediently never the less. “Yes, Sir but it will take them some time to arrive-“

 

“DO IT!” he roared so loud part of what was left of the Command Bridge fell immediately.

 

Numbuh Infinity sobbed and covered in fear, “as you wish, my emperor”.

 

“And…one more thing…” Omega suddenly whispered. 

 

He then turned over his shoulders and looked at Infinity with the scariest most furious glare. 

 

“Send a message to my sector team too”

 

“…to  **Sector Omega** , sir?”

 

“Yes…and tell them to bring with them another Planetary Decommissioning Canon”

 

 

///

 

 

**Please check on my social media for art related to the story! Plus, we now have a Spotify playlist with the perfect song list to accompany your reading!**

 

**Comments and constructive critiques are really appreciated!**

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and constructive critiques are really appreciated!


End file.
